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FROM 

OTLEY  TO   LANGSTROTHDALE 
BY   HARRY   SPEIGHT 

SCALt   *  MILES   TO   AN    INCH 


•  ,-A 


UPPER 
WHARFEDALE. 


BEING    A    COMPLETE    ACCOUNT    OF    THE 

HISTORY,    ANTIQUITIES    AND    SCENERY 

OF    THE     PICTURESQUE 

VALLEY   OF   THE    WHARFE, 

FROM  OTLEY  TO  LANGSTROTHDALE. 


HARRY    SPEIGHT, 


AUTHOR  OK  "  ROMANTIC  RICIIMOXDSIIIHE  ";  "  NIDUKRDAI.K  AND  THE  GARDEN  OF  THE  NIDD  ' 
"  CRAVES  AND  NOKTH-WEST  YORKSHIRE  HIOHLANDB,"  ETC. 


ILLUSTRATED. 


LONDON : 

ELLIOT  STOCK,  62,   PATERNOSTER  ROW,   E.G. 
1900. 

Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall, 


ULVERSTON  : 

W.   HOLMES,   OTTO   PRINTING  WORKS,  LIGHTBURNE   ROAD. 
1900. 


PREFACE. 


HE  present  treatise  on  Upper  Wharfedale  is  offered 
in  continuation  of  the  series  of  my  -published  volumes 
on  the  history,  antiquities  and  scenery  of  the 
Yorkshire  Dales.  The  work,  I  must  own,  makes 
no  pretence  to  literary  excellence,  nor  is  absolute 
accuracy  in  all  details  guaranteed,  yet  I  humbly  claim  it  to  be  the 
fullest  and  I  hope  the  most  reliable  survey  of  the  district  embraced 
now  extant.  While  much  of  a  general  and  descriptive  character 
has  been  written  on  this  exceedingly  popular  and  picturesque  valley, 
it  must  be  noted  that  with  the  exception  of  such  records  as  are 
contained  in  the  History  of  Craven  by  Dr.  Whitaker,  first  published 
in  1805,  no  attempt  has  hitherto  been  made  to  deal  succinctly  and 
adequately  with  the  varied  concerns  of  its  extensive  parishes  in  what 
may  be  considered  the  spirit  of  modern  topographical  enquiry.  Dr. 
Whitaker,  followed  by  his  able  editor,  Mr.  A.  W.  Morant,  F.S.A., 
will  always  be  honored  for  the  great  value  of  his  original  researches, 
which  however  principally  concern  manorial  history  and  the  titles 
and  lineage  of  the  great  lords  who  had  either  by  inheritance  or 
purchase  a  possessory  right  in  the  soil.  His  work,  moreover, 
embracing  the  whole  of  the  ancient  and  extensive  Deanery  of 
Craven  is  a  bulky  and  costly  volume. 

In  the  present  effort  to  describe  a  more  limited  area  of  this 
picturesque  part  of  Yorkshire,  I  have  supplemented  and  corrected 
where  I  have  been  able  the  historical  records  of  Dr.  Whitaker.  At 
the  same  time  I  have  endeavoured  to  make  the  work  interesting 
by  the  introduction  of  a  variety  of  other  topics,  such  as  geological 
descriptions,  notes  on  natural  history  (a  very  rich  field),  folk-lore  and 
old  customs  (which  surviving  in  retired  country  places  may  often  be 
traced  to  their  Anglo-Saxon  or  even  remote  Celtic  origins)  as  also 
traditions,  legends,  and  anecdotes  of  persons  and  things ;  subjects 
in  fact  that  possess  a  fascination  to  the  general  reader.  The  whole 
work  is  also  brought  down  to  date. 


Originally  it  was  my  intention  to  have  embraced  in  one  volume 
a  survey  of  the  whole  of  the  Wharfe  valley  from  the  parish  of 
Cawood  to  the  source  of  the  river  in  the  solitudes  of  Langstrothdale. 
But  such  a  scheme  would  have  necessitated  the  omission  of  a  great 
deal  of  valuable  original  material,  inasmuch  as  the  records,  together 
with  the  varied  interest  attaching  to  such  parishes  as  Tadcaster , 
Wetherby,  and  Thorp  Arch,  not  to  mention  other  places  within  the 
attractive  region  of  the  Lower  Wharfe,  are  quite  sufficient  to  make  a 
portly  volume  in  themselves.  In  order  therefore  to  do  adequate 
justice  to  the  whole  subject  I  proposed  in  the  Prospectus  issued  in 
connection  with  this  present  work  to  deal  with  the  valley  in  two 
volumes,  the  first  to  embrace  UPPER  WHARFEDALE  and  the  second 
(not  less  interesting)  LOWER  WHARFEDALE  ;  and  care  has  been  taken 
by  this  arrangement  not  to  interfere  with  the  collaboration  and 
completeness  of  the  whole. 

Resident  as  I  have  always  been  in  the  vicinity  of  Wharfedale, 
the  charmingly-picturesque  valley  has  been  familiar  to  me  from  early 
boyhood,  and  its  abounding  attractions  have  always  possessed  to  me 
more  than  ordinary  delight.  Thousands  of  happy  hours  I  have  spent 
in  the  valley  and  I  have  walked  thousands  of  miles  throughout  its 
length  and  breadth,  observing  and  noting  every  visible  feature  and 
object  of  interest,  while  my  maternal  ancestors,  as  will  be  seen  from 
the  pedigree  on  pages  338-9,  have  lived  in  the  ancient  parishes  of 
Skipton  and  Burnsall,  and  probably  within  sound  of  the  bells  of 
Bolton  Abbey,  for  more  than  five  hundred  years.  Folk  of  no  State 
distinction  they  ever  were,  but  humble  commoners  as  the  Fates  made 
them,  racy  of  the  soil  from  which  they  sprang,  ready  ever  to  serve 
their  country  and  their  God ;  men  who  under  the  banner  of  the 
"Shepherd  Lord"  shared  England's  hopes  and  glory  on  the  memorable 
Field  of  Flodden,  or  who  taking  up  arms  as  their  consciences  dictated 
for  King  or  for  Parliament  joined  in  the  strife  that  led  to  the  fateful 
day  of  Marston  Moor. 

In  the  preparation  of  this  book  therefore,  I  have  had  ample 
material  from  which  to  build  up  the  story  of  every  parish  from  the 
first  evidences  of  its  life.  I  have  noted  and  described,  I  believe, 
every  object  of  historical  and  archaeological  interest,  all  the  ancient 
camps,  cairns,  tumuli,  stone  circles,  marked  stones,  house-steads, 
roads,  dykes,  and  other  evidences  of  prehistoric  occupation.  But  in 
so  wide  a  district,  comprising  vast  extents  of  wild  fell  and  uncultivated 
moorland,  there  may  possibly  be  some  object  or  remains  of  this  kind, 
which  have  escaped  notice,  obscured  as  they  may  be  by  centuries' 
growth  of  peat  and  turf.  Some  of  these  overgrown  prehistoric  sites, 
as  for  example  the  extensive  encampment  within  the  township  of 
Thorpe  in  Burnsall  parish,  I  have  been  guided  to  discover  merely  by 
acquaintance  with  the  Celtic  names  of  the  sites  where  they  lie. 
In  the  light,  too,  feeble  often  though  it  be,  of  these  ancient  place- 


5 

N,  as  also  of  sculptured  rocks,  crosses,  holy-wells,  church 
symbolism  and  the  like,  I  have  been  able  to  form  some  interesting 
conclusions  on  the  occupation  of  the  district  from  remote  pagan  to 
early  Christian  times.  Things  likewise  that  enable  us  to  speak  of  the 
gradual  abandonment  of  crude  religious  beliefs,  and  of  the  nobler 
aims  and  art  of  the  people  brought  about  by  the  development  and 
spread  of  Christianity. 

The  original  settlements  and  orthographical  interpretation  of 
the  various  places  dealt  with,  have  been  based  on  carefully-considered 
historical  and  philological  evidences,  and  in  all  cases  with  due 
deference  to  the  original  character  of  the  sites  and  remains  so  far  as 
their  existing  aspects  enable  us  to  determine  them. 

Coming  to  the  period  of  actual  written  evidences,  almost  every 
parish  chest  and  available  archive,  locally  as  well  as  in  London, 
Wakefield,  and  York,  has  been  examined,  including  old  Sessions' 
Records,  Wills,  Fines,  Inquisitions,  Pipe  Rolls,  Charter  Rolls,  Close 
Rolls,  Patent  Rolls,  Chancery  Proceedings,  Calendar  of  State  Papers, 
Heralds'  Visitations,  Archiepiscopal  and  other  Registers,  as  well  as 
most  of  the  publications  of  the  learned  societies  and  thousands  of 
valuable  newspaper  cuttings  collected  by  me  during  past  years. 
Some  of  the  parishes  and  places  but  lightly  touched  on  by  Whitaker, 
such  as  Otley,  Leathley,  Addingham,  Burley  and  Grassington,  I 
have  dealt  with  at  length.  The  much-visited  localities  of  Bolton 
Abbey  and  Barden  Tower  I  have  also  treated  in  somewhat 
considerable  detail.  For  much  of  the  information  related  about 
these  places  I  am  indebted  to  the  generous  condescension  of  His 
Grace  the  Duke  of  Devonshire  for  the  privilege  of  an  inspection  of 
the  charters  and  numerous  old  documents  at  Bolton  Hall,  facilities 
for  the  examination  of  which  were  courteously  given  by  His  Grace's 
steward,  Mr.  Alfred  Downs.  Many  items  of  more  than  local  interest 
have  thus  been  brought  to  light,  including  some  account  of  the 
historic  Barden  Tower,  and  the  life  that  gathered  round  it  during  the 
stirring  epoch  of  the  famous  "Shepherd  Lord."  Some  fragments  are 
also  offered  of  a  long-lost  cell  or  religious  house  at  Marton-in-Craven, 
and  of  the  ancient  "Wake"  of  St.  Cuthbert  at  Embsay,  a  great  annual 
event  at  one  time,  but  the  recollection  of  which  must  long  have  been 
forgotten. 

The  history  of  manorial  and  other  families  and  biographical 
sketches  of  local  worthies,  including  abstracts  from  unpublished  deeds 
and  pedigrees,  have  received  commensurate  attention.  Likewise 
every  notable  building,  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  domestic,  has  been 
described  from  my  own  personal  observations,  such  descriptions  in 
many  cases  being  aided  by  engravings  illustrative  of  special  features. 

In  the  preparation  of  a  work  of  this  character,  it  is  a  pleasure  to 
state  that  I  have  been  very  willingly  assisted  by  many  of  the  gentry 
and  other  residents  in  Wharfedale.  Indeed,  there  is  not  n  village  or 


a  hamlet  that  I  do  not  owe  to  one  or  more  of  its  inhabitants  facts  of 
more  or  less  importance  obtained  or  related  to  me  personally  on  the 
spot,  or  communicated  to  me  by  letter  at  various  times.  Every 
clergyman  in  the  Dale  too,  from  Otley  to  Langstrothdale,  has  been 
most  obliging  in  allowing  me  to  inspect  the  old  parish  books,  registers, 
and  other  documents  in  their  keeping,  from  which  I  have  been  able 
to  make  many  useful  abstracts  and  interesting  reflections  on  past  life 
in  the  Dale.  It  is  a  matter  of  much  regret  that  I  cannot  mention 
every  one  separately  by  name  and  am  perforce  obliged  to  make  this 
general  acknowledgment  of  help  so  ungrudgingly  rendered. 

Outside  the  district  information  has  also  reached  me  from 
almost  all  quarters  of  the  globe.  It  is  impossible  to  acknowledge 
the  kind  communications  of  every  writer.  To  the  Rt.  Hon.  Lord 
Hawkesbury  I  am  particularly  indebted  for  various  information 
communicated  in  the  midst  of  his  many  and  pressing  duties,  and 
especially  for  his  assistance  in  preparing  the  useful  and  important 
pedigree  of  the  noble  House  of  Cavendish,  as  all  the  published 
pedigrees  of  the  Dukes  of  Devonshire  are  singularly  deficient  and 
inaccurate.  The  Rev.  J.  R.  Baldwin,  East  Barton ;  the  Rev.  W.  C. 
Kendall,  Aysgarth ;  Mr.  Wm.  C.  Maude,  Bournemouth ,  and  Mr. 
Cecil  Tennant,  F.S.A.,  London,  have  also  courteously  complied  with 
my  wish  to  furnish  a  detailed  lineage  of  their  respective  families, 
which  are  among  the  oldest  in  Upper  Wharfedale  and  its 
neighbourhood.  To  Major  Parker,  of  Browsholme  Hall,  I  owe  an 
explanation  of  some  difficulties  in  connection  with  the  Currer 
pedigree,  printed  on  pages  248-9,  which  has  enabled  me  to  connect 
that  historic  family  with  my  old  yeoman  ancestors,  the  Moorhouses, 
referred  to  above. 

I  have  also  had  the  use  of  two  small  unpublished  manuscript 
volumes  on  a  part  of  Wharfedale,  kindly  placed  in  my  hands  by  Mr. 
W.  Venables  Rhodes,  of  Cleckheaton.  They  are  of  no  historic  value, 
but  are  interesting  as  being  the  earliest  prose  volumes  on  Wharfedale 
extant,  containing  several  pen  and  ink  illustrations,  and  dated  on  the 
title-page  1807.  The  author's  name  is  not  stated.  They  contain, 
however,  some  useful  particulars  on  contemporary  events  such  as  the 
running  of  the  coaches,  holding  of  markets,  descriptions  of  buildings, 
&c.,  then  existing,  and  wherever  I  have  quoted  from  them 
acknowledgment  has  been  made.  To  Mr.  John  Hopkinson, 
F.R.MetS.,  St.  Albans,  I  am  indebted  for  the  valuable  Tables  of 
Rainfall  in  Wharfedale,  printed  on  pages  19-21.  Mr.  Francis  Darwin, 
J.P.,  of  Creskeld,  has  supplied  many  useful  notes,  and  he  has  also 
been  good  enough  to  revise  the  proofs  of  the  chapters  on  Bramhope 
and  Pool.  Very  little  hitherto  has  been  recorded  of  these  places. 
For  various  other  kindly  help,  information,  loan  of  papers,  &c.,  my 
thanks  are  due  to  the  Rev.  Canon  Beanlands,  M.A.,  Victoria,  British 
Columbia ;  the  Rev.  Thos.  Parkinson,  North  Otterington ;  the  Rev. 


7 

T.  Basil  \Voodd,  M.A.,  London  ;  Sir  James  Ramsay,  Bart.,  M.A., 
Bamff,  Messrs.  T.  E.  Yorke,  Bewerley  Hall;  Arthur  C.  Benson,  Eton; 
Geo.  B.  Nesfield,  London;  W.  G.  Collingwood,  M.A.,  Coniston;  John 
Varley,  C.E.,  Skipton,  J.  W.  Clay,  F.S.A.,  Brighouse ;  J.  R.  Boyle, 
K.S.A.,  Hull;  Richd.  E.  Leach,  M.A.,  Appleby ;  J.  W.  A.  Black, 
Bradford;  Wm.  Butterfield,  Bradford;  David  Longbottom,  Silsden , 
J.  A.  Clapham,  Bingley;  J.  Norton  Dickons,  Bradford;  John  J.  Stead, 
Heckmondwike;  Gilbert  Metcalfe  and  Nathaniel  J.  Hone,  London. 

The  illustrations  from  which  the  engravings  have  been  made 
and  which  form  a  conspicuous  and  useful  feature  of  the  book,  have 
been  remitted  from  various  quarters,  and  many  of  them  have  been 
specially  taken  for  the  work.  They  include  also  some  valuable  and 
scarce  originals.  In  preference  to  an  enumeration  here  of  the  names 
of  those  who  have  been  good  enough  to  allow  me  to  engrave  their 
views,  portraits,  &c.,  I  have,  in  accordance  with  my  usual  plan, 
indicated  on  pages  16  to  18  the  sources  from  which  they  have  been 
derived. 

The  bulk  of  the  pictures  have  been  engraved  and  the  printing 
of  the  book  and  binding  have  been  executed  at  the  works  of  Mr. 
William  Holmes,  Ulverston.  The  quality  of  this  work  must  be  left 
to  speak  for  itself. 

In  conclusion,  my  thanks  are  due  to  the  numerous  and  influential 
body  of  subscribers  whose  patronage  has  materially  assisted  me  in 
the  publication  of  the  work.  Their  names  are  printed  at  the  end  of 
the  volume. 

HARRY     SPEIGHT. 
BINGLEY,  YORKSHIRE, 

Midsummer,  1900. 


SUMMARY     OF     CHAPTERS. 


CHAPTER  I.,  OTLEY   AND   NEIGHBOURHOOD   IN    PREHISTORIC 

TIMES  ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...       25 

General  character  of  Wharfedale — Its  isolation,  healthfulness,  and  surpassing-  scenery 
— History  and  antiquities — Rocks  and  wild  flowers — Early  settlements  in  the  parish 
of  Otley — Some  British  and  Roman  roads — Otley  under  the  Romans — Celtic 
survivals — Important  discoveries — Local  evidences  of  Roman  Christianity — Holy 
Wells,  &c. — Otley  in  the  kingdom  of  Elmete — Abounding  British  remains — Otley 
an  early  and  important  religious  centre — The  planting  of  the  Cross — Historical 
and  other  evidences — Local  misconceptions — The  first  Yorkshire  monasteries — 
Dedication  of  churches  to  All  Saints — Local  dissent  in  the  7th  century — Pipin's 
Castle  near  Otley — Saxon  Otley — Meaning  of  Otley — Local  ethnology — The 
inroads  of  the  Danes — The  victory  of  King  Athelstan — His  grant  of  Otley  to  the 
See  of  York — The  Archbishop's  jurisdiction  and  privileges— The  first  church  — 
A  dual  right  of  sanctuary  at  Otley. 

CHAPTER  II.,  RECORDS  OF  THE  PARISH  OF  OTLEY  FROM  THE 

NORMAN  CONQUEST...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...       38 

Settlement  and  extent  of  the  Norman  parish  of  Otley — The  feudal  manor,  how  worked 
— Township  areas — Guiseley  and  the  origin  of  its  parish — Baildon  and  Bramhope 
in  Domesday — The  extinct  wapentake  of  Gereburg,  its  origin  and  purpose — Claro 
wapentake  and  the  Curia  Regis — The  origin  of  lordships — The  gallows  at  Otley— 
Hanging  a  bellman — Citation  of  local  executions— Rewards  for  felling  thieves — 
Warrant  against  the  Archbishop — Unpublished  market-charter  for  Otley — Local 
errors — Ancient  laws  of  sale  and  barter — Markets  held  in  the  nave  of  the  church — 
A  picturesque  Otley  fair-day — The  monks  of  Bolton,  Arthington,  &c.,  attend  the 
fairs — The  Archbishop's  manor-hall  and  court  at  Otley — Ancient  burgage  tenure — 
How  Otley  was  anciently  represented  in  Parliament — Local  monastic  possessions — 
Foundation  of  a  leper's  hospital  at  Otley — The  building  of  Otley  bridge — Otley  in 
the  1 4th  century— Abbot  of  Selby  at  Otley  and  local  inns — The  "Shepherd"  Lord 
Clifford  at  Otley  after  the  battle  of  Flodden — A  i6th  century  Otley  muster-roll- - 
Otley  during  the  Civil  War — Menston  Old  Hall— Local  events,  Extracts  from  the 
Registers — The  xyth  century  hearth-tax— Otley  and  the  1715  and  1745  rebellions. 

CHAPTER  III.,  THE  TOWN  OF  OTLEY,  PAST  AND  PRESENT...       57 

The  town  of  Otley — Noted  visitors — Antiquity  of  the  parish  and  origin  of  die  church — 
Comparison  with  Dewsbury — Historical  and  architectural  account  of  the  church — 
The  building  of  the  aisles — Endowment  of  the  chantry-chapels — The  tombs  and 
tablets — The  families  of  Fairfax,  Fawkes,  and  Vavasour — The  medieties  of  the 
church — List  (annotated)  of  vicars — Abstracts  from  the  registers — The  churchyard 
— The  Grammar  School — Local  Nonconformity — The  Friends — Wesleyans — 
Independents — Baptists — Primitive  Methodists,  &c. — Old  roads  and  streets,  their 
origin  and  significance— Old  Otley  inns — Attack  on  Lord  Fairfax — Life  at  Otley  in 
the  coaching-days— The  railways — Pleasant  aspects— Local  trades  and  industries — 
The  Wharfedale  Agricultural  Society  ;  its  origin  and  history — Amusing  anecdotes 
— Various  old  customs  at  Otley — The  Maypole— Old  Otley  families— Distinguished 
natives. 

CHAPTER  IV.,  AROUND  OTLEY 91 

Delightful  scenery  and  associations — Bishop  Tunstall's  praise — Local  geological 
formation — View  from  the  Chevin — Otley  Bridge — Newhall  Old  Hall — Local 
families — Interesting  relics  at  Newall  Hall — Otley  Union — A  centenarian. 


CHAPTER  V..  FARNLKY  ...  99 

Farnley  Hall  and  the  Fawkc-  taniily  -The  family  muniments— Historical  sketch  The 
late  Mr.  Ayscough  F'awkc-  and  the  Rev.  Frederick  Fawkes  The  hall  and  il- 
trea-nrc-  The  Turner  drawing-  Relic-  of  the  Civil  \Var  The  park  -Sale  of 
pedigree  stock  The  church  Discovery  of  a  lead  coffin. 

CHAPTER  VI.,  THE  PARISH  OF  LEATHLEY     107 

Beautilul  scenery  The  Washburn  -Meaning  of  the  name  -Local  field-names  Pre- 
Coii(|uest  Leathley  Manorial  history  Meaning-  of  LYathley  —  The  De  Lclay- and 
other  families  Warburton's  visit  to  I.eathley  The  Pilgrimage  of  Grace  The 
Cliurcli  Architectural  description  Comparison  with  Celtic  churches  Historical 
records  The  old  rectorv  Curious  old  stocks  and  whipping-post  -Ancient  trades 
at  I.eathley  Boundaries  of  the  common -The  school  and  almshouses  Mr-. 
Wat-on,  centenarian  I.eathlcv  Hall  Castle\-,  the  hall,  &c.  Historical  notes 
Chapel  Field  Ancient  manor-house  -A  rural  solitude. 

CHAPTER  VII.,  ROUND  ABOUT  POOL 127 

Pool  Bridge— A  rare  fern— History  of  Pool— Local  monastic  possessions  <  )ld  families 
— Old  trades  and  inns  -The  church — Picturesque  aspects  Local  mansions  -Leeds 
and  Otley  turnpike  -Cycling  scenes —Caley  Hall,  an  old  hunting-lodge  of  the 
Gascoignes  Park  stocked  with  deer,  zebras,  &c. 

CHAPTER  VIII.,  BRAMHOPE      135 

Meaning  of  Hramhope — Situation  and  wide  view --Roman  camp —Historical  records  — 
Land  cultivated  from  ancient  times — The  Domesday  carucate — Dyneley  family 
Local  monastic  properties— Tenants  in  bondage -Hramhope  Hall  The  Rhodes 
and  Darwin  families — The  old  chapel  erected  during  the  era  ot  the  Commonwealth 
— The  old  churchyard — The  new  church  of  St.  Giles — The  Wesleyan  Chapel — 
The  Craven  Institute. 

CHAPTER  IX.,  BURLEY 139 

The  old  cotton  mill  and  how  it  was  worked — The  new  mills — Burley  in  the  van  of 
progress— Historical  records — Meaning  of  Burley  -Local  families  -Descent  of  the 
manor  -Monastic  possessions— The  church— The  late  Rev.  Dr.  Black  -The  Maude 
family— Notable  houses  -Recent  alterations -Burley  Great  Pudding -Burley  Hall 

Local    Worthies— Handsome  memorial  to  the  late  Rt.    Hon.    W.    L".    Forster 
Greenholme  Mills,  a  model  factory — Mr.   VVm.   Fison  and  the  late  Mr.   Forster 
Local  benefactions — Anecdote  of  Mr.   Forster — His  death  and  funeral — The  poet 
Watson 

CHAPTER  X.,  ON  THE  EDGE  OF  THE  MOOR 156 

Burley  Wood  Head — The  Kumbalds  Moor  hermit  Ancient  -tone  circles  The  old 
hamlet  of  Stead — The  Stead  family — Remarkable  instance  of  continuous  residence 
in  one  spot — Stead  Hall — The  Twisleton  family  Picturesque  aspects  -Probable 
site  of  Roman  camp  -  Prehistoric  remains  ( )ld  local  families  A  moorland  walk 
Hawksworth  Hall  and  the  Hawksworths  <  )kl  Menston  families  Menston  Old 
Hall — The  asylum. 

CHAPTER  XI.,  THE  PARISH  OF  WESTON         163 

Rural  aspects — Antiquity  of  the  parish — Manorial  history— The  manor  never  once  sold 
from  the  Norman  Conquest  to  the  present  time — Weston  Hall — Old  tithe-barn  — 
The  Norman  Church — The  tithes— View  of  the  surrounding  country — Whin  Castle 
— Dog  Park,  an  old  Forest  Lodge — Askwith,  meaning  of  its  name — Historical 
records — The  family  of  Askwith — The  Kendalls — Old  (Juaker  Meeting-House — 
Wesleyans  Village  inns  -Askwith  Fea-t. 


to 
CHAPTER  XII.,  DENTON  AND  THE  FAIRFAXES  ...         ...      172 

Meaning-     of     Denton     Si.     Helen's     Gill — Wild     plants,    &c. — Scales     Gill-  Charter 
mentioning-  ancient  boundaries — Denton  an  ancient  centre  of  the  clothing'  trade 
The  Fairfax  family — Their  extraordinary  talents — Distinguished  visitors  at  Denton 
Ferdinando,   Lord  Fairfax     Thomas,   Lord  Fairfax,   the   Parliamentary  General 
Sale  of  Denton  to  the  Ibbetsons     Denton  Hall —Old-time  life  at  the  hall     The  old 
chapel — The  present  church— Old  customs. 

CHAPTER  XIII.,  ILKLEY  BEFORE  THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST...     185 

Ilkley  mentioned  by  Ptolemy  —A  Brigantian  station — Meaning-  of  Olicana — The  Anglo- 
Saxon  subjugation—  Conjectural  site  of  the   British   "city"     The  Roman  station 
Description    of    the    Roman    camp — Local   discoveries — The    "Verbeiie"    stone 
Meaning  of  Wharfe-  The  "Hercules"  stone,  its  probable  significance— Christianity 
prevailing'  in  places  not  reached  by  the  Romans—  The  Celtic  Church   -Early  forms 
of  baptism     A  remarkable   Roman  grave-slab  at   Ilkley — Other  discoveries — The 
Ilkley  camp  the  focus  of  four  Roman  highways — Their  routes  described — Saxon 
Christianity  at  Ilkley — Local  sculptured  crosses  — Local  influence  of  St.  Wilfrid  — 
Ilkley  a  Danish  mint — Antiquity  of  boundaries— Ancient  methods  of  cultivation. 

CHAPTER  XIV.,  THE  TOWN  OF  ILKLEY  AND  ITS  DEVELOPMENT     201 

Contrast  between  old  Ilkley  and  the  present — Rustic  aspects — The  "Cow and  Calf"  rocks 
— Ilkley  "illuminated"  at  the  Queen's  coronation — A  murder  in  the  Cow  Pastures-- 
The  Butterfield  family- The  old  White  Wells — Manorial  records — Unpublished 
market-charter — Ilkley  contributes  to  the  war  ag-ainst  Scotland  The  English 
defeat  at  Bannockburn— Population  and  old  inns— The  Parish  Church — Grammar 
School — Places  of  public  worship — The  old  vicarag-e — Schools — Museum  Con- 
valescent homes — Coaches  to  and  from  Ilkley — Former  life  at  Ilkley — Distinguished 
visitors — Old  customs — Recent  improvements — The  Ilkley  of  to-day — Wheatley 
and  its  old  Hall. 

CHAPTER  XV.,   RUMBALDS  MOOR:   ITS  PHYSICAL  FEATURES 

AND  ANTIQUITIES     ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...     224 

Unrivalled  attractions  of  Rumbalds  Moor — Meaning  of  its  name— St.  Rumold,  a 
Christian  martyr — View  from  the  top  of  the  moor — Local  geology — Glacial 
evidences— Curious  rocks  and  traditions — Advent  of  man — Original  Goidelic 
settlement — "Cow  and  Calf"  rocks — Marked  stones  and  circles — Their  universal 
dispersion — Local  workers — Descriptive  list  of  antiquities  on  the  Moor — Theories 
and  ideas  respecting  them — Symbols  of  time,  &c. — Evolution  of  the  Sun-Snake — 
The  doctrine  of  the  ascending  spirit — The  marked  stones,  the  basis  of  Ilkley's 
existence — Necessity  for  their  careful  preservation — Projected  military  encampment 
on  the  Moor — An  unrivalled  playground. 

CHAPTER  XVI.,  AROUND  ILKLEY        244 

Great  changes  about  Ilkley— Hebers'  Gill,  formerly  Black  Beck— -An  ancient  tribal 
boundary  Silver  Well — Hollin  Hall— The  Hebers,  Maudes,  and  Currers — Ilkley 
Bridge— Myddleton  Lodge  and  the  Middletons — The  late  William  Middleton  Esq. 
— His  private  benevolence — Sale  of  part  of  the  Middleton  estate. 

CHAPTER  XVII.,  AROUND  BEAMSLEY  BEACON          255 

Howber  Hill,  its  meaning— Supposed  tumuli— Beacon  lighted  during  the  threat  of  the 
French  invasion — Fine  prospect — Langbar — An  ancient  paved  way — Barnbowers — 
Currer  Hall— Farrand  House— West  Hall  and  the  Ferrands— Beacon  House— The 
Briggs  family— The  late  Mr.  B.  B.  Popplewell— Church  services  at  Beacon  Hill— 
Local  Wesleyans  —  Ling'  Park  and  the  Kendalls. 


I  I 
CHAl'IKR   XVIII.,   XESSFIKLD 265 

Meaning  of   NYsslield     (  'aMleberg,    a    prehistoric   ramp      Local    discoveries  Low  Mill 

Scar      Norman    land-cultivation      Plumpton    family      .Manor-house     and  mill  (  )ld 

homeMeacU      John     Prior,    clock-maki  i-     The    Kendalls   and    Nesstields  'I'hc  new 
church     'I'hc  swing-bridge. 

CHAPTER  XIX.,  PRE-NORMAN  ADDINGHAM 270 

Banishment   ot    an   Archbishop  of    York   to  Addingham   in    A.I).    ISjo     Abounding  pre- 
historic  sites      Discovery  ol  a  brun/e  spear-head      Roman  road  through  .-\ddingham 
I  he  coaching  (lavs      Close    House      Roman   camp  on    Counter    Hill      Prehistoric 
tumulus     Ancient  boundaries     Curious  field-names      Local  discoveries. 

CHAPTER  XX  ,  ALL  ABOUT  ADDINGHAM  FROM  THE  NORMAN 

CONQUEST      275 

Little  hitherto  recorded  about  Addingham  Addingham  in  Cumberland-  -Domesday 
testimony  Meaning1  of  Addingham  Historic  evidences  The  Battle  of  Flodden 
The  Reformation  A  local  martyr  The  Parish  Church  Local  families  A 
centenarian  Remarkable  discoveries  'Lithe-barn  Kvents  at  Adding-ham  during 
the  Civil  \Var  Abstracts  from  the  old  parish  books  Pinfold  and  ducking-stool — 
i'ettv  Sessions  Old  customs  Some  old  houses  The  old  School  The  manor-house 
Lartield  Hall  --Local  Nonconformists  Old  trades  The  power-loom  riots. 

CHAPTER  XXI ,  ON  THE  EARLY  HISTORY  OF  BOLTON        ...     287 

Prehistoric  evidences  Bolton,  a  possession  of  the  Earls  of  Mercia  —  Conjectural  royal 
residence  at  Bolton  in  Saxon  times — Domesday  inquest — Superior  importance  of 
Snaygill,  &c.,  to  Skipton  Importance  of  Embsay  and  Halton  -  Probable  centres  of 
Celtic  missionary  work— Grant  to  Romille  and  the  building  of  Skipton  Castle. 

CHAPTER   XXII.,   EMBSAY  "WAKE"  AND  THE  FOUNDATION 

OF  BOLTON   PRIORY...          ...         ...          ...         ...         ...     291 

Beautiful  scenery  Motives  for  site  of  the  Priory  —Ancient  religious  associations  at 
Embsay -St.  Cuthbert's  "Wake"  The  Celtic  Church  in  Northumbria  The 
painting  of  St.  Cuthbert  at  Bolton  Priory  —The  great  Fair  at  Embsay — Remains  of 
the  Priory  at  Embsay—  Citation  of  grant  of  the  manor  of  Bolton — Leg-end  of  the 
Strid-  The  grange  of  Stead — Specte  Beck  and  the  name  Speight  Citations  from 
unpublished  charters. 

CHAPTER     XXIII.,    BOLTON    ABBEY:    RECORDS    OF    EIGHT 

CENTURIES     ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...     298 

Descent  of  the  manor  to  the  Cliffords — Purchase  of  the  lordships  of  Bolton  &c.  by 
Henry,  Earl  of  Cumberland  The  Priory  raided  by  the  Scots  -Abstracts  from  and 
remarks  upon  the  ancient  Compotus  of  the  Priory  Death  of  the  Lady  Margaret 
Neville  and  the  pomp  of  her  funeral  The  Nortons  and  the  Catholic  rebellion 
Notes  from  letters  at  Bolton  Abbey  Effects  of  the  Dissolution  Local  notices  ol 
the  Civil  War — Succession  of  the  manor  The  Cavendish  family — Bolton  Hall — 
Armorial  errors — Cavendish  Memorial  Fountain  —The  late  Duke  of  Devonshire. 

CHAPTER  XXIV.,  DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  ABBEY         311 

A  neglected  approach  to  the  Abbey— A  Pilgrim's  Cross — Beauty  of  the  scenery— The 
Poet  Laureate's  observations — The  ruined  choir — Norman  sculptured  stones — 
"Sermons  in  stones" — Additions  in  the  i3th  century — The  parish  church — 
Architectural  description — The  Beamsley  Hall  chapel --Vault  for  upright  burials — 
Sealed  altar  -Other  relics  -The  tower  &c.  The  Priors •  o\  en  Local  discoveries 
A  pilgrim's  statue. 


12 

CHAPTER  XXV.,   MARTON:   A   LOXG-LOST  RELIGIOUS  HOUSE     323 

Local  references  to  Marton  Priory — The  Bolton  monks'  land  at  Marlon  in  Craven  — 
The  Priory  of  Marton  in  Cleveland— Records  at  Bolton  Abbey— Discoverit  -  <>n  the 
site  of  Ing-thorpe   Grange— Was  there  a  dependent  cell  to  Bolton  at   Marton?— 
Situation    of  the    religious    house- Old    monastic   orchard— Family   of   Baldwin 
Description  of  Ingthorpe  Grange. 

CHAPTER  XXVI.,  AROUND  BEAMSLEV 327 

Picturesque  aspect  --Local  families  —Manor  of  Beamsley  The  Claphams  Beamsley 
Hall  Risphill  and  Gihbeter — Troubles  of  the  Reformation  Beamsley  Hospital  — 
Ancient  ferry-house —Bolton  Bridge — Old  Roads. 

CHAPTER  XXVII.,  ROUND  ABOUT  DRAUGHTON         333 

Local  geological   phenomena  -The  great  anticlinal,   cause  of   the  Harrogate   mineral 
waters     Aspects  at   Bolton  Abbey — Draughton  in  Domesday — Old  local  families 
Dr.  Wainman     Draughton  Hall — Local  relics     An  old  cotton-mill — The  church  and 
school  -Past  traditions — A  story  of  witchcraft— Close  House  and  the  Moorhouses — 
Local  belief  in  "Red  Cap"  —Pedigree  of  the  Moorhouses— Local  relics  in  possession 
of  the  author  -Families  descended  from   the   Moorhouses     Dr.   Moorhouse — The 
('uirers    of    Skibeclen     East    Skibeden    and   Judge    Nightingale — A   crack   shot 
Local  anecdote. 

CHAPTER  XXVIII.,    THROUGH     THE     WOODS    TO     HARDEN 

TOWER  ...  ...     345 

Unceasing  charm  of  Bolton  Woods  -Wild  Dowers  -The  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  Archbishop 
Benson  and  Mr.  Ruskin's  opinions  — Andsell  and  Landseer  at  Bolton — The  Rev. 
Wm.  Carr — Opening  out  the  woods  with  pleasant  paths  and  drives — The  Rev.  A. 
P.  Howes— Names  of  some  old  "Seats" — The  "White  Horse"  of  the  Strid — Lud 
Islands  — Harden  Tower  Inventory  in  the  time  of  Lady  Anne  Clifford — Life  at 
Barden  Tower  in  the  time  of  the  "Shepherd  Lord"  -Abstracts  of  his  domestic 
expenses  Forest  lodges  and  river-watchers--  Local  relics  Barden  Church. 

CHAPTER    XXIX.,    THROUGH    THE    VALLEY   OF    DESOLATION 

TO  SIMON  SEAT       358 

Posforth  Gill  waterfall— A  great  flood —Romantic  gorge— Bounds  of  the  Forest  of 
Barden — British  evidences  —An  old  trackway  over  the  moor — Remains  of  ancient 
bloomeries — In  the  Valley  of  Desolation — Deer  still  wild  there — On  the  top  of  the 
moor — Strange  rocks  and  wild  plants — Truckle  Crags,  old  rock-shelters — Cairn  of 
the  "Devil's  Apronful"  Simon  Seat  Curious  rock  phenomena — Glorious  view — 
Remarkable  depression  on  the  moor —Geological  peculiarities — Lord's  Seat — 
Boundary  of  the  Forest  of  Knaresbro'. 

CHAPTER  XXX,   APPLETREWICK          365 

Importance  of  Appletrewick  before  the  Norman  Conquest — Its  ancient  gallows — 
Manorial  history — Sale  of  the  manor  to  Bolton  Priory — Grant  of  free  warren,  its 
meaning  and  significance— History  after  the  Reformation— Old  houses— Erroneous 
conclusions — Court  rolls  of  the  manor — Old  customs — Local  families — The  stocks — 
Ancient  mansions — The  noble  family  of  Craven — Supposed  birth-place  of  Sir  Wm. 
Craven — Low  Hall  and  the  Proctors  Local  ancestry  of  Archbishop  Benson  — 
Meaning  of  Appletrewick. 


T3 

CHAPTER  XXXI.,  UP  THE  DALE  TO  BURSSAU 375 

A  lovely  drive  through  the  Forest  of  Harden    old  Forest  lodges    Club  Nook     Rustic 
simplicity      Drebley      Prospect     from     Burnsall     Fell     Side     \Voodhouse    and     the 
Blands     Ancestral    connections    with     Lord     Nelson     Olti     houses    and     families 
Hartlingion- -  Loral    properties   of    the    Knights    of  St.    John    of    Jerusalem — The 
Metralle  family     Manorial  records — Feudal  obligations     Some  errors  corrected— 
Hartlington    Hall,    the   residence   of    I.t.-('ol.    Dawson      Tin-   old    manor-house  ami 
cliapel      An  old  inn     Ancient   family  of  Dihh     Skyreholme      Percival   Hall  and  the 
Low-oils     A   notable   marriage      The   Inman    family      The   gorge  of  Trailers  Gill 
Descent   of  Hell    Hole— Geological  aspects. 

CHAPTER  XXXII.,  BURNSALL 387 

In  the  land  of  the  Viking — Meaning  of  the  name  Burnsall  Dale-names  in  the  Sagas  — 
Post-Norman  history — The  glebe — Local  monastic  possessions —Bond  tenure 
Ouality  and  weight  of  cattle  in  ancient  times  First  evidences  of  the  occupation 
of  Burnsall — Revival  of  Christianity — Early  sculptured  crosses  Burnsall  never  in 
the  parish  of  Linton — Ancient  holy-wells  Description  of  crosses  Historical 
inaccuracies — The  medieties  of  the  church — The  ancient  chapels  at  Rilston, 
C'oniston,  and  Bradley — Rectors  of  Burnsall  The  church  described — Eleventh 
century  font — Churchwardens'  accounts  Old  customs  Local  pastimes — The  old 
Grammar  School  Local  improvements—  Pleasant  scenery. 

CHAPTER   XXXIII.,  THE   ANCIENT  TOWNSHIP   OF  THORPE, 

OR   THORPE-SUB-MONTEM      ...  ...  ...  ...  ...      403 

A  "Sleepy  Hollow,"  the  "birth-place  of  the  world" — A  pre-Christian  burial-vault 
and  old  bear  den — The  shoemakers  of  Thorpe — The  Baily  Hill,  an  old  British 
encampment — Evidences  of  coral-reefs — Elbolton  Cave— Discovery  of  human  and 
other  remains — Antiquity  of  the  deposits  Bones  o(  Arctic  animals  Subsequent 
history — The  hall  and  manor-house — Former  aspects. 

CHAPTER  XXXIV.,  LINTON-IN-CRAYKN           409 

Numerous  Lintons  -Historical  errors — Local  monastic  possessions  Traditions  of  an 
alien  Priory  -Discovery  of  a  remarkable  brass  crucifix — A  brass  seal  of  St.  Michael 
found  near  Bolton  Abbey— Evidences  of  Celtic  occupation— "Borrans"  at  Linton 
— Celtic  customs  at  Linton — Superiority  of  Grassington  over  Linton  in  Anglo-Saxon 
times— The  manor  at  the  Conquest — The  church — Architectural  description — The 
rectors — Notes  on  the  registers  — Pre-Reformation  burials— The  old  rectories — 
Local  evidences  of  Anglo-Saxon  and  other  customs— Linton  Hospital — Notable 
houses — Delightful  scenery. 

CHAPTER  XXXV.,  AROUND  THRESHFIELD     421 

The  sense  of  freedom  and  freshness  among  the  Craven  fells— The  valley  at  Threshfield 
-Caverns  at  Skirethorns  and  evidences  of  prehistoric  inhabitants —Remarkable 
finds — Early  cultivation  of  land  -Ancient  customs — The  family  of  Threshfield — 
Local  grants  to  Fountains  Abbey— The  Old  Hall— Inn  -Craven  butter— Notable 
houses  Local  families  The  park  Grammar  School  Distinguished  pupils. 

CHAPTER  XXXVI.,  CELTIC  GRASSINGTON      ...  ...     427 

Romantic    scenery— Archaeological    interest — Grassington    an    ancient     "citv" 
Extensive    prehistoric    earthworks    &c. — Recent    discoveries — A    Celtic    stronghold 
Antiquity  of  local  lead-mines — Roman  conquest — Bronze  and  iron — Discovery  of  Roman 
coins — The    High    Close    encampment — Roman    roads — Peculiar    field-names — Celtic 
traditions — Fairy  Hole— Miners'  superstitions  -Celtic  numerals— An  old  Roman  custom. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII.,  GRASSINGTON  PAST  AND  PRESENT       ...     435 

The  displacement  of  Christianity — Grassing-ton  the  last  strong-hold  ot  Celtic 
independence — Extent  of  cultivation  at  the  Conquest — Garsington  in  Oxfordshire 
Manorial  history — The  Plumptons — The  Old  Hall,  a  notable  house — Architectural 
description— Ancient  local  families — Grassington  Beacon — Meeting  of  Yorkshire 
naturalists — A  Paradise  of  wild-flowers — Beautiful  scenery — Our  Lady's  Well — 
Ghaistrills — Present  aspects  of  the  town — Proposed  light-railway — Old  customs — Local 
dissent  and  effects  of  the  Reformation. 

CHAPTER  XXXVIIL,  ON  THE  HIGH  MOORS  448 

A  tramp  into  Nidderdale — An  old  road — Natural  history  attractions — On  the  moors  with 
the  late  Mr.  H.  T.  Soppitt — A  search  for  the  bear-berry — An  extensive  prospect — 
Ancient  hill-names — Discovery  of  a  brass  celt — Greenhow  Hill — The  highest 
church  in  Yorkshire — Geology  of  Greenhow — The  Bradford  Waterworks  tunnel. 

CHAPTER  XXXIX.,  ROMANTIC  HEBDEN         453 

Picturesque  aspects — Name  of  Hebden — Thor's  Well — Manorial  history— The  family 
of  Hebden — Roman  Catholicism  in  Upper  Wharfedale—  A  Hebden  recussant — 
Local  improvements — Former  appearance  of  the  village — An  ancient  drying-kiln — 
The  old  manor-house — Old  natives — Anecdote — Some  old  homesteads — The  church 
— Romantic  scenery — Ancient  field-names. 

CHAPTER  XL.,  ROUND  ABOUT  CONISTON        459 

Romantic  scenery — Chapel  House — :A  grange  and  chapel  of  Fountains  Abbey — The 
Tennant  family — The  village  of  Coniston — Meaning-  of  Coniston — Antiquity  of  the 
church — Its  present  aspects — Old  houses — Prehistoric  evidences — Discoveries  in 
Coniston  Pastures — Local  hill-names. 

CHAPTER  XLI.,  KILNSEY          464 

Prehistoric  habitations — Dowkabottom  Cave — Discoveries  of  prehistoric  animal  and 
human  remains — Relics  of  prehistoric  spinning  and  weaving — Name  and  meaning 
of  Kilnsey — Local  possessions  of  Fountains  Abbey — Grange  destroyed  by  the 
Scots — Annual  sheep-shearing  at  Kilnsey — Rights  of  way  for  ox-wains  &c. — The 
old  Hall  and  the  Wade  family — Lady  Anne  Clifford  at  Kilnsey — Kilnsey  Crag — 
Local  inns — Kilnsey  Angling  Club. 

CHAPTER   XLII.,  KETTLEWELI 473 

Remoteness  from  railways — Proposed  line  up  Wharfedale — The  charm  of  isolation  — 
Local  inns  and  accommodation — The  Great  Scar-Limestone — Formation  of  terraces 
Ancient  "terraced  reins" — Antiquity  of  local  husbandry — Prehistoric  evidences — 
Scale  Park  Hunting-  Lodge — Name  of  Kettlewell — Progress  of  agriculture — 
Manorial  history — Old  families — The  church — Wesleyan  Chapel — Kettlewell 
blacksmiths — Inns — Romantic  scenery — Douk  cave. 

CHAPTER  XLIII.,  A  TRAMP  THROUGH  LITTONDALE 480 

Local  possessions  of  Fountain  Abbey — Wild  beasts  and  birds  of  prey — The  eagle  in 
Littondale — Last  record  of  the  eagle  in  Wharfedale — Routes  into  Littondale— 
Hawkswick — The  Horse  Head  pass— Across  Malham  Moors — Dalesfolk  and  the 
Transvaal  War — Rainfall  in  Littondale — Heat  and  cold — Local  longevity — Vicars 
of  Arncliffe — Botany  of  Littondale — Some  rare  wild  flowers — The  church  at 
Arncliffe — Halton  Gill  chapel,  &c.  Wild  scenery. 


'5 
CHAPTER    XLIV.,  UP    DAM.   FROM    KETTLEWELL  TO  BUCKDEN      485 

Picturesque  scenery  Tin-  village  ol  Suit  l>o||< mi  Meaning  ol  (lie  name  A  historic 
Hood— Old  houses  at  Starliottom  Buckden  Woods  Local  field-names  At  tin: 
dale-head  FiiM  records  ot  Buckden  Wild  deer  Manorial  owners  Buckdcn  Hall 
— Antiquity  of  manor-house — The  family  of  Hucktlen — The  village— Church  and 
\Vesleyan  Chapel — The  Friends  Wild  scenery  -  A  haunt  of  the  marten  Cray. 

CHAPTER  XLV.,  IN  WILD  LANGSTROTHDALK  491 

Kxtent  of  Buckden  township— The  Forest  of  Langstroth   owned  by   the   Percys  and 
Cliffords     The      chapelry      of      Hubberholme — Viking      invasion — Antiquity      "t 
Hubberholmc  Church  —  Description  of  interior     An  ancient  n)od-loft— The  Heliei- 
family  and  the  new  parsonage — A  walk  up  the  dale      Poor's  Pasture      K.xtermination 
of  wild  animals — Lodges  in  the  fores!  of  Langstroth      Local  possessions  of  Fountains 
Abbey — Monastic     cattle-folds — Raysgill  — Keckermonds — The      Lodge      family 
Oughtershaw   and    the    Woodds — Local    enterprise     A    wealth    of  wild  )lowcr< 
Discovery  of  coins  — Romantic  scenery — At  the  source  of  the  Wharfe— Conclusion. 


1 6 


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Engraved  for  this  work  from  the  original 

supplied  by 
BOLTON     PRIORY,     drawn    by    J.    M.    W.  Frontispiece 

Turner,  R.  A.          Face  page. 

Burley  House     ...          ...          ...          ...          ...      Wm.  C.  Maude,  Bournemouth         ...      147 

Interior  of  Hubberholme  Church      ...  ..     S.  Milne-Milne,  Calverley     ...         ...      192 


IN  BOTH  EDITIONS.      FULL    PAGE    VIEWS. 


OtleyChevln       

Otley  Church      

Kirkgate,  Otley 

Ancient  Crosses,  Otley  Church 
Old  Grammar  School,  Otley  ... 

Newall  Old  Hall  . .         

Farnley  Hall 

Ayscough  Fawkes,  Esq.,  J.P. 

Interior  of  Farnley  Hall 

Swinsty  Reservoir,  Washburn  Valley 

Norman  Door  &  Window,  Leathley  Church 

Bramhope  Hall  ... 

Rt.  Hon.  W.  E.  Forster          

Forster  Memorial  Cross,  Burley 
Weston  Church ... 
I  Ikley  from  West  View 
Roman  Grave  Slab  at  York    ... 
Brook  Street,  Ilkley,  fifty  years  ago 
Old  Grammar  School,  Ilkley  ... 
Roman  Grave  Slab  found  at  Ilkley  ... 
Mother  Downe's  Cottage,  Ilkley 

The  Old  Hall,  Wheatley         

Prehistoric  Sculptured  Stone... 

Ilkley  Bridge      

Myddelton  Lodge,  near  Ilkley 

On  the  Wharfe,  Bolton  Woods         

Tomb  of  Henry,  first  Earl  of  Cumberland, 

Skipton  Church      

Bolton  Hall         

West  Doorway,  Bolton  Priory 
Norman  Arcading,  Bolton  Priory    ... 

Ground  Plan  of  Bolton  Priory         

Ancient  Houses  formerly  at  Beamsley 

On  the  Wharfe,  Bolton  Woods         

Bolton  Priory  from  the  Thatched  Summer 

House 

The  Strid,  Bolton  Woods       

Harden  Tower    .. 


Wm.  Walker  &  Soils,  Otley . . . 

Do.  do. 

Do.  do. 

R.  E.  Gregory,  Bingley 
Wm.  Walker  &  Sons,  Otley. . . 

Do.  do. 

Joseph  Pollard,  Ilkley 
Rev.  F.  Faivkes,  M.A.,  Farnley 
Phineas  B>iggs,  Clayton 

Miss  Beatrice  Mylne,  Leeds  . . . 

Bradford  Hist,  and  Antiq.  Soc. 

H.  W.  Sachs,  Bradford 

Wm.  Walker  &  Sons,  Otley . . . 

George  Hepworth,  Brighouse . . . 
J.  Shuttlexorth,  Ilkley 

Bradford  Hist,  and  Antiq.  Soc. 

Wm.  Butterfield,  Bradford  ... 
J.  Shuttleviorth,  Ilkley 
Jesse  Bontoft,  Ilkley    ... 

Wm.  Bnimfitt,  Ilkley 
Jesse  Bontoft,  Ilkley    ... 

Thos.  Pawson,  Bradford 

J.  SImttlewoi-th,  Ilkley 
W.  Scott,  Ilkley 


Fred  Turner,  Morecambe 
D.  Long-bottom,  Silsden 
J.Jackson,  Bradford  ... 
Yorks.  Arcfaeol,  Society 
George  Hey,  Beamsley 
W.  Scott,  Ilkley 


25 
40 

57 
62 

71 


I05 
107 

"7 
132 

'39 
'52 
162 
202 
i93 

201 
213 
216 
218 
222 
237 
25  ' 
253 
291 

299 
305 

311 
312 
320 
328 
344 

347 
349 
35° 


Biinisall  I'rom  the  \\Vst 

Bunisall  Church  ..  ,.,  ...      "... 

Thirteenth     Centurv     Sculpture,      Burnsall 

Church 

Ancient   l-'ont,  Burnsall  Church 
I.inton  Bridge  and  Falls 
Norman  Crucifix  found  al  I.inton 
Union  Cliurch    ... 

The  Old  Hall  <  Jrassjngton       

Suspension  Bridge,  ( ira-s  Wood 

The  Ghaistrills,  Grassington    .. 

Suspension  Bridge,   Hebclcn  ... 

Scala  (iill  Waterfall       

\'ie\v  in  Wharfedale  near  Collision 
Collision  C'hurcli 
Kettlewell  from  tin-  west 

Hubberholme  Church 

Oughte rshaw  Hall 


l-'i-id  Turner,  .]/,i>;  i  in/i/ii 
Do.  do. 

Do.  do. 

Do.  do. 

D.  Brmonsworthi  Skipton 

/•'red  'I'u  rner,  Monniml'i 
/).  /!  ro~^  n  s-^o  >'//!,  Skipton 


D. 


Do. 


,  Skipton 
do. 


D.  Brmansworth,  Skipton 

/•'red  Turner,  Moreeambe 
D.  BnmmsuDorth,  Skipton 

D,>.  do. 

A'<v.  T.  H.  U'oodd,.}f.A.,  O 


39S 

397 
408 
410 
4'5 
434 
443 
445 
45a 
457 

459 
47^ 
491 

497 


OTHER     ILLUSTRATIONS. 


A  Vikinjc  Warrior's  .Memorial  at  Otley 
Some  t'raifiiicnts  of  Anglian  (,'rosses  at  Otley 
Vicinity  of  Otley  Church  Fifty  Years  Ago... 
Norman  Doorway,  Otley  Church 
Ancient  Crosses,  Otley  Church 
Fairfax  Tomb  in  Otley  Church 
Old  Thatched  Cottage,  Otley 
Dr.  John  Spence 

Dr.  Richard  Garnett,  C.B 

Leathley  Hall  Two  Centuries  Ago    ... 
Leathley  Church 

Leathley   Church    Tower,    Showing    Angle 
Buttresses    ... 

Old  Rectory,  Leathley 

On  Bells  at  Leathley  Church 

The  Old  Chapel,  Bramhope   ... 
Burley  Hall  Two  Centuries  Ago 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Black      

Thomas  Maude,  the  Poet 
Old  Thatched  Houses,  Burley 

John  P.  Clapham,  Esq.,  J.P 

Ferdinando,  Lord  Fairfax 

Thomas,  Lord  Fairfax  ... 

Denton  Hall,  A  Century  Ago... 

"Hercules"  Stone  at  Ilkley    ... 

Font  at  East  Haddon    ... 

Roman  Gravestone  found  at  Ilkley  ... 

Saxon  Crosses,  Ilkley  ... 

Rose  and  Crown  Hotel,  Ilkley 

Church  Street,  Ilkley,  in  1880 

"Charity  Hole,"  Old  Vicarage,  Ilkley 

Ilkley  Museum   ... 

Old  House  in  Green  Lane,  Ilkley 

View  of  Ilkley  from  Panorama  Woods 

The  "Cow  and  Calf,"  Ilkley  ... 

Dr.  Thos.  J.  Call 


E.  E.  (,'rcyiry,  Diiiffley 

Do  do.     '  

John  Bro~M>i,  Otlcv 
E.  E.  Gregory,  Rlngley 

Do.  do. 

Do.  do. 

Do.  do. 

Ilkley  Hospital  Committee. 
IV.  M.  Jackson,  London. 
British  Museum 
E.  E.  Gregory,  Ringlev 

Do.  do.  

Rev.  H.  Caiiliam,  Leathlev    ... 
J.  E.  Poppleton,  Pontefract 
Rradjord  Hist,  and  Antiq.  S<><-. 
British  Museum 
J.   If.  A.  Black,  Stone  Gappe 
A'rr.  A.  Maude,  HI.A.Jiiirffh.  I\ci ton- 
Mr.  Biear,  Burley 
J.  A.  Clapham,  Bingley 


J.  Slmttlev:orth,  Ilkley 

J.  SludtleiKorth,  Ilkley 
Do.  Do. 

llklev  Hospital  Committee 

J.  .Slnittleworth,  Ilkley 
Joseph  Pollard,  Ilkley... 

Ilkley  Hospital  Committee 


37 
37 
5« 
6i 

64 
76 
88 

oo 

I  12 

"4 
"5 

121 
126 

'37 
'4-' 
'45 
'47 
149 

176 
179 
182 
190 
190 
192 
200 
206 
209 
214 
216 
217 


i8 


Prehistoric  Sculptured  Stone  on  Green  Crag 

Swastika  on  Woodhouse  Crag  

Covvper  Cross,  Rumbalds  Moor 

Hollin  Hall          

Low  Hall,  Ilkley 

Currer  Hall          

Benjamin  Briggs  Popplewell,  Ksq 

Old  Wesleyan  Chapel,  Langbar 
Seventeenth  Century  House,  Xessfk-ld 
The  Late  Duke  of  Devonshire 
The  Present  Duke  of  Devonshire     ... 
Norman     Capitals    and    Arcading,     Bolton 

Priory   ... 

Interior  of  Nave,  Bolton  Priory 
South  East  Angle  of  Cloister  Court,  Bolton 

Priory    ... 

Tower  Entrance,  Bolton  Priory 
Mason  Marks  at  Bolton  Priory 
South  Transept,  Bolton  Priory 

Posforth  Gill  Waterfall  

Summer  House  near  Simon  Seat 

Summit  of  Simon  Seat... 

Reputed    Birthplace   of  Sir   Wm.    Craven, 

Appletrewick  ... 

Early  Sculptured  Crosses,  Burnsall... 
Burnsall  Church  in  1839 
The  Grammar  School,  Burnsall 
Section  of  Elbolton  Cave 
Seal  of  St.  Michael 
A  Peep  in  Linton  Village 
Bone  Cave  near  Skirethorns  .. 

The  Old  Hall,  Threshfield       

Chapel  House,  Kilnsey 

The  Old  Hall,  Kilnsey 

Kilnsey  Crag 

Wesleyan  Chapel,  Kettlevvell... 

Wesleyan  Chapel,  Buckden    ... 

Hubberholme  Church  ... 

Swarthgill,  the  Highest  House  in  Wharfedale 


Thos.  Pawson,  Rrad/nnt 
J.  Romilly  Allen,  L<>IK/<»I 
/.  Pollard,  Ilkley 
J.  Shuttle-Mirth,  Ilkley 
J.  Pollard,  Ilkley 

llklev  Hospital  Committee 


\\'m.  Holmes,  i'h'erstuii 
Do.  Do. 

D.  Ltyngbottom,  Silsdeii 
W.  Scott,  Ilkley 

I).  Lonjrbottont,  Silsdeii 
Do.  (l». 

/*,".  E.  Gregory,  Bluffier 
W.  Scott,  Ilkley 
Joseph  Pollard,  Ilkley 
Do.  do.      ... 

F.  E.  V.  Stavert 

Do.         do. 

John  Vatley,  C.H.,  Skip/on 
Fred  Turner,  Mo  recant  be 

T.  Roose,  Bolton  Abbey 
D.  Brownsworth,  Skipton 
-   Lister,  Malham 
D.  Bro-&ns~<xorth,  Skipton 

D.  Brmvnsvaorth,  Skipton 
J.  B.  Smithson,  Leylntnt 


Rei:  T.  B.  Woodd,  M..  l.,Oi<x/iters/iav> 


234 

237 
243 
245 

25' 

26  ( 
263 
268 

30? 
308 

3  '3 


316 

318 

3  '9 
320 

359 
361 
362 

37  1 
39' 
396 
401 

405 
411 
418 
422 
424 
460 
468 
47° 
47« 


FOLDING     PEDIGREES. 
MAUDE  of  Burley  in  Wharfedale 

CAVKXDISH,  Duke  of  Devonshire 
TKNNAXT  of  Bordley  and  Chapel  House 


to  face  page     146 
,,  3°7 


1C. 


TIIK     RAINFALL     OF     UPPER     VV1 1.\  k  l<  Kl  ).\  I.K. 


Hv  JOHN  HOPKJNSON,   I".  R.MET.Soc.,  F.G.S.,  &c. 


Upper  Wharfedale  has  a  rather  copious  rainfall  differing-  considerably  in  amount 
in  various  pans  of  the  area  drained  by  the  Wharfe.  From  the  head  of  the  valley 
to  the  neighbourhood  of  Otley  there  is  a  decrease  of  about  one-halt.  For  the  twelve 
years  1886-97  the  mean  annual  rainfall  at  Arncliffe  in  Littondale,  near  the  head 
ol  Wharfedale,  was  58-16  inches,  and  the  mean  of  two  stations  near  Otley,  viz. 
Leathley  and  Arthington,  was  29-33  inches.  The  mean  of  twelve  stations  in  Upper 
Wharfedale  for  this  period  was  37*35  inches,  and  if  these  stations  be  divided  in  three 
groups  of  tour  each,  the  result  is  as  follows  : — Mean  rainfall  from  Arnclifle  to  Hurnsall, 
43' 1 2  inches  ;  from  Harden  to  Ilkley,  36-23  inches  ;  from  Hlubberhouses  to  Arthington, 
32*70  inches.  This  last  amount  is  higher  than  it  would  otherwise  have  been  through 
the  inclusion  of  two  stations  on  high  ground  in  the  Washburn  Valley. 


The    following  table  gives   the   mean  and  extreme  annual  rainfall  at   the 
stations  arranged  in  the  same  order  as  the  Wharfe  and  its  tributaries  flow  :  — 

twelve 

Height  above 

Station, 

Authority. 

sea  level. 

Mean. 

Min. 

Mux. 

Feet. 

inches. 

inches. 

inches 

Arncliffe  Vicarage 

Rev.  W.  A.  Shuffrev 

*       714 

58-16 

42"?6 

68-50 

Trunla  Hill,  (Iriniwith 

].  Watson,  C.F..1 

t  *.)~ 
I  2O  I 

-jc-eq 

T        O 

27'2'J 

JO'JJ 

Grim  with  Res.  (old  gauge).. 

.       890 

OO  3:7 
43-06 

/     o 

34-02 

^        T^T 
48-97 

Thorpe  Fell,  Hurnsall 

.     1661 

35-68 

23-80 

4°  'Q.'i 

1'pper  Harden  Reservoir  

,,                 

1250 

38-S5 

29-91 

44^7 

Harden  Reservoir  (old  gauge) 

746 

40-27 

28-06 

44  '57 

C  helker  Reservoir 

730 

31*54 

20  '6  1 

35-44 

Ilklev  (fherrv  Hank) 

T.      Robinson 

600 

34  •  ^4 

22  "35 

40-87 

Hlubberhouses     

T.  Hewson,   CM-;. 

575 

3°  '54 

a6'53 

45'  '9 

Timble,  Few-ton 

720 

34-90 

26-64 

40-86 

Lindlcv    Wood    S.,    Leatlilev 

,,                

t 

3  '  -' 

30-81 

22-72 

36  '  1  2 

Art  liin  irton     . 

1.10 

28  -;6 

io-  -jo 

.TV.  TO 

*   Previous  to  1893,  Veil.  Archdeacon  Hoyd. 

I    Previous  to  1890,  A.  R.  Hinnie,  C.E.  ;  in  1890,  J.  Webster,  (Ml. 

Arncliffe  has  a  long  record,  observations  having  been  commenced  there  by  the 
Venerable  Archdeacon  Boyd  so  long  ago  as  1853.  In  the  following  table  is  given  the 
mean  and  extreme  monthly  rainfall  at  Arncliffe  Vicarage  for  the  40  years  1859-98. 

Mean, 

ins. 

January  6-27 

February     4-88 

March 5-05 

•M>ril     3'33 

Mav 3-20 

J»"f     3'64 

Year  :— Mean,  60-58  ;  Min.,  42-36  (1887) ;  Max.,  79-49  (1877) 


Min.. 

Max, 

Mean. 

Mi//. 

Mas. 

ins. 

ins. 

ins. 

ins. 

ins. 

•6  1 

i  '  '57 

July  

4-50 

'59 

9-64 

•8  1 

10-40 

August  

...     5-46 

''93 

9'52 

I  '00 

9-89 

September    ... 

5'37 

'54 

1  1*64 

•6  1 

7  '79 

October  

0-47 

2  '47 

'3'38 

•74 

6-72 

November     ... 

6'io 

1-09 

'i  '39 

•60 

6-80 

December  

...     6-31 

1-05 

12-24 

20 

The  next  table  gives  the  same  information  for  Barden  Reservoir  (old  gauge)  for  the 
10  years  1881-90  : — 

Mean.       Min.      Max.  Mean.  Min.     Max. 

ins.           ins.        ins.  ins.  ins.         his. 

January     3-87           '62         7-21  July 4-17  1-53         674 

February 2-70           -99        6-46  August 3-85  1-23        6-97 

March    3-24         1*14         6-14  September  3*70  1-21         6-56 

April 2-49         1-53        4-63  October   4-38  1-26        6-35 

May  2-44           -83         3-82  November    4-48  1*85         8'86 

June  2-19           -16         4*88  December   3-50  i  "06         6-48 

Year:— Mean,  40-98;  Min.,  28-06(1887);  Max.,  53-68(1882). 

The  annual  rainfall  at  Arncliffe  Vicarage  for  the  40  years  1859-98  was  as  follows: 

his.                                     ins.  ins.  his. 

1859 55-96  1869 65-01  1879 51*37  1889 49-60 

60 54-93  70 50-14  80 65-05  90 60-77 

61 59-94                     7i 5273  81...  ..   70-77  91           61-68 

62 64-05  72 79-00  82 77'2i  92 58-89 

63 66-43  73  5376  83 65-53  93 54-96 

64  45-78  74 64-87  84 58-82  94 68-87 

65 47-26  75 58-35  85 52-80  95  53-71 

66 75*97  76  61-20  86 67-79  96 58*00 

67 54-68  77 79-49  87 42-36  97 68-59 

68 66-70  78 58-55  88 52-69  98 68-77 


1859-68     59*17  1869-78    62-31  1879-88    60-44  1889-98    60-39 

The  best  idea  of  the  rainfall  of  any  district  may  doubtless  be  obtained  by  comparison 
with  that  of  other  districts.  For  such  comparison  it  will  be  most  convenient  to  take 
the  ten  years  .1881-90.  For  this  period  the  mean  rainfall  in  Upper  Wharfedale  was 
about  one  inch  more  than  it  was  during  the  12  years  1886-97,  'ne  mean  of  eight  stations 
for  the  12  years  1886-97  being  38-78  inches,  and  for  the  same  stations  for  the  10  years 
1881-90,  39-88.  Selecting  four  from  these  which  give  very  nearly  the  same  mean,  and 
taking  four  representative  stations  in  Wensleydale  on  the  north  and  four  in  Airedale  on 
the  south,  we  have  the  following  result,  showing  that  the  rainfall  in  Upper  Wharfedale 
is  rather  greater  than  in  the  corresponding  part  oi  Airedale,  and  considerably  less  than 
in  Wensleydale.  The  geological  position  of  all  these  stations  is  on  the  Carboniferous 
formation  and  below  the  Coal  Measures,  either  on  the  Carboniferous  Limestone,  the 
Yoredale  Rocks,  or  the  Millstone  Grit. 

NORTH     RIDING.  WEST     RIDING. 

Wensleydale.  Upper  Wharfedale.  Upper  Airedale. 

itis.  ins.  itts. 

Hawesjunc 64-85  Arncliffe 59*83  Malham  Tarn ,S«S'34 

Hardraw    46*74  Up.  Barden  Res 38*51  Silsden  Res 30*21 

Aysgarth    38*62  Chelker  Res 33*"2  Bingley 32*75 

Leyburn     35*46  Arthington    28-49  Weetwood  Res.  ...  26-90 

Mean,  46-42  Mean,  39*99  Mean,  37*05 

A  more  extended  comparison  may  now  be  made.  If  each  Riding  of  Yorkshire  be 
considered  as  a  separate  County,  the  West  Riding,  in  which  Wharfedale  is  situated,  is 
surrounded  by  the  following  "Counties"— East  Riding,  North  Riding,  Lancashire, 
Cheshire,  Derby,  Nottingham,  and  Lincoln.  The  following  table  gives  the  mean 
rainfall  for  the  10  years  1881-90  at  twelve  stations  in  the  West  Riding  and  at  four  in 
each  of  the  surrounding  "Counties,"  the  twelve  Yorkshire  stations  of  which  the  mean 
lor  this  period  is  given  in  the  preceding  table  being  omitted  in  order  to  avoid  repetition. 


2  I 


YORKSHIRE. 

IfV.v/    /\ii/in_i,f. 


i/is. 
35  '65 


The  -e<|uence  of  the   rainfall  -tations  in  each  group  of  four  is  downwards  when  in  the 
same  river-basin,  and  from  north  to  south,  or  west  to  east,  when  not  SO, 

LANCASHIRE. 

ins, 

Lancaster  (Southfield)  40-01 

Clitheroe  ( I  )o\\  nham  Hall)  4°'44 

Manchester-  (Fairfield)  1S'37 

Liverpool  (Grove  Park) 30*32 

CHESHIRE, 

Marple,  Stockport  34 -50 

Bidston  Observatory,  Birkenhead  28*26 

Boston  Minns,  Cong-leton 33*89 

Chester  (Newton  Nurseries) 28-43 

DERBY. 

Woodhead  Station  52'O3 

Buxton  (Devonshire  Hospital) 49'33 

Matlock  Bath     ...  35"2O 

Findern,  Derby     24*3-; 

NOTTINGHAM. 

Nottingham  (Beeston  Field) 26*83 

Hodsock  Priory,  Worksop  .    24*47 

Retford  (M.S.  &  L.  Ry.  Co.)    22-91 

Bawtry  (Hesley  Hall) 23'57 

LINCOLN. 

Brigg.  (M.S.  &  L.  Ry.  Co.) 20*19 

Lincoln              (do.)               23'34 

I  lorncastle  (Hemingby) 26*15 

Boston  (Grand  Sluice)    23*11 


Trunla  Hill,  Grimwith    

Grimwith  Reservoir  l.S'.W 

Barden  Reservoir     40*98 

Ilklcy  (Cherry  Bank)  36*91 

Hareden  Brook,  Slaidburn    66*89 

Rib-ton,  Wetherby 26*07 

Holbeck  Water  Works,  Leeds    ...  25*90 

Wakefield  (Alverthorpe  Hall)  25-79 

I  hm ford  Bridge,  Penistone  48*12 

Sheffield  (Redmires)   40*41 

'  Ulley  Reservoir,  Rotherham    22-39 

Doncaster  (Magdalens)  24-25 
East   Riding. 

York  (Meteorol.  Council) 24-84 

Be verley  (Alexandra  Terr.)  25-11 

Hull  (Pearson  Park)    25'77 

Spurn  Head,  Patrington    19*11 

North  Riding. 

Richmond  (The  Grove) 34 "°5 

Guisborough  (Hutton  Hall)  33'°4 

Whitby  (Guisbro' Road)    26-19 

Scarborough  (West  Bank) 27'4! 


During  the  ro  years  1881  to  1890  the  mean  annual  rainfall  in 
Upper  Wharfedale  (8  stations)  was  39-88  inches,  in  the  West  Riding 
(20  stations)  37-35  inches,  in  the  North  Riding  (8  stations)  38-30 
inches  •  and  in  the  East  Riding  (4  stations)  23-71  inches.  The  mean 
in  the  seven  "Counties"  surrounding  the  West  Riding  was  3fjo 
inches.  It  would  thus  appear  that  Upper  Wharfedale  has  about 
two-and-a-half  inches  more  rain  per  annum  than  has  the  West  Riding 
generally,  and  eight  inches  and  three-quarters  more  than  the  average 
fall  in  the  district  by  which  the  West  Riding  is  surrounded.  Although 
the  four  stations  for  each  county  have  been  carefully  selected  as 
representative,  the  number  is  rather  too  small  to  give  a  sufficiently 
trustworthy  average. 

P.S. — The  above  information  has  been  derived  from  returns  collected  by  Mr.  G.  J. 
Symons,  F.R.S.,  and  published  in  'British  Rainfall'  the  'Monthly  Meteorological 
Magazine,'  'Rainfall  Tables  ,,f  the  British  Islands,  iN66-8o',  lh.  '1866-00,'  and  the 
'Reports  of  the  British  Association';  and  the  monthly  rainfall  at  Arncliffe  for  the  year 
1859  has  been  kindly  supplied  by  Mr.  Symons. 


22 


HEIGHTS    OF    MOUNTAINS. 


Compiled  chiefly   from    the    Ordnance 

Abbrev. — Y.,  Yorkshire;    W. ,   Westmorland;    L.,   Lancashire.      When  not 
otherwise  specified  the  summits  are  in  Yorkshire. 


Addleborough 
Arant  Haw  (Sedbergh) 
Arncliffe  Clowder   ... 
Attermire  Scar 

Barbon  Fell  (W.) 

Barkin  Pike  (Y.  and  W. ) 

Baugh  or  Bow  Fell 
Beamsley  Beacon    ... 

Black  Hill  (Malham)  

Blea  Moor 

Bow  or  Baugh  Fell 

Bowland  Knotts 

Brownsley  Ridge  (Pateley  Moor) 

Buckden  Gable  (Ramsden  Pike)... 

Burn  Moor    .. 

Burnsall  Fell 

Calf  (Howg-ill  Fells)  (Y.  and  W. ) 
Calvey  (Swaledale) ... 

Cam  Fell        

Casterton  Fell  (W. ) 

Castleberg  (Settle) 

Cautley  Crag 

Chevin  Beacon  (Otley) 

Colm  Scar 

Coniston  Pie 

County  Stone  (Y.,  L.  and  W.)    ... 

Cracoe  Fell   ... 

Crag-  Hill  (L.  and  VV.)       

Croasdale  Fell 
Cush  Knott  ... 
Deepdale  Haw 

Dodd  Fell      

Earl  Seat 

Elbolton 

Embsay  Crag 

Flasby  Fell  (Sharp  Haw)  ... 

Fountains  Fell 

Giggleswick  Scars  ... 

Great  Shunnor  Fell 

Great  Whernside    ... 

Greenfield  Knott     

Greygarth 
Hawkswick  Clowder 

Hawgill  Pike  (Dent)  

Hebden  Moor 

Hellifield  Haw          

Helm  Knott  (Dent) 

High  Mark  (Malham)         

High  Pike  (Deepdale)        

High  Seat  (Mallerstang)  (W.)     . . . 
Howgill  Fells  (Calf)  Y.  and  W.)... 

Hutton  Roof  (W.) 

Ingleborough 


FEET 

'564 

1089 
1637 

1600 

1794 

1718 

22OO 

'34' 
'536 
'753 

2  20O 

I4II 

'095 
2302 

1595 

1661 

222O 

1599 
iSQO 
I20X) 
709 
2150 

925 
1580 
IIOO 

2150 

1650 

2259 
1433 

'959 
'93° 
2189 

H74 
1140 
1 200 
1150 
2191 
1025 

235' 

2310 

'959 
2250 
1346 
1825 
1250 
702 

975 

1746 
1762 
2328 

2220 

859 

2373 


Inglehow  (Ryeloaf) 
Keasdon 

Kirkby  Fell 

Knowe  Fell  ... 

Lady's  Pillar 

Lamb  Hill  (Croasdale  Fell) 

Leek  Fell  (L.)  

Little  Fell  (Hawes) 

Little  Fell  (Langstrothdale) 

Little  Whernside     

Lovely  Seat  (Buttertubs  Pass) 
Meugher 

Mickle  Fell 

Middleton  Fell  (W.) 
Moughton  Fell 

Milker  Edge 

Nine  Standards  (Y.  and  W.) 
Norber 

Oughtershaw  Side  ... 
Park  Fell  (Ingleborough)... 
Parson's  Pulpit  (Malham)... 

Pendle  Hill  (L.)        

Penhill  

Penyghent    ... 

Piked  Haw  (Malham) 

Pin  Haw  (Elslack  Moor)   ... 

Rise  Hill,  or  Rysell 

Rogans  Seat  (Swaledale)  ... 

Ryeloaf 

Rylstone  Fell 

Shunnor  Fell 

Simon  Fell  (Ingleborough) 

Simon  Seat  ( Wharfedale) . . . 

Simon  Seat  (Howgills)  (W.) 

Smrarside 

Snai/eholme  Fell 

Stag's  Fell 

Standard  of  Burn  Moor    ... 

Stank  Fell  (Bolton  Abbey) 

Sugar  Loaf  (Settle) 

Ten  End  (Hawes)    ... 
Thorpe  Fell  ... 

Threshfield  Moor 

Water  Crag  ... 

Weets  (Malham)      

Wetherfell     ...         

Whelpstone  Crag 

Whernside    ... 

Widdale  Fell  

Wild  Boar  Fell  (W.) 

Wold  Fell      

Yarlside(W.)  

Yockenthwaite  Moor 


FEET 

'794 
1636 
1788 
1700 
2257 
'433 
1756 
2186 

1985 
1984 
2213 
1887 
259' 
'999 
1402 
2213 
2153 
!33° 
1950 
1836 

'PS 

1831 

'675 
2273 
1400 
1  200 
1825 
2204 
1794 
'45° 
235  i 
2125 


"95 
'779 
1X22 
1318 

IOOO 
I20O 
1919 

1661 
1150 
2186 

1350 
2015 
1246 
2414 
2203 

2323 
7829 
2097 
2109 


POPULATION     TABLE. 

Increase 

Incfca-c 

or 

or 

I  )r<Tt-a-r 

Population.       from                                                        Population. 

from 

1891. 

1871    to                                                                            1891. 

1871   to 

Township. 

1891.                           Township. 

[891. 

A  dilinirhiim 

>  >  >  - 

i(iS  i                   Karnhill                               6^ 

16^  I 

Appletrewick 

—  -o 

JJC) 

ug    I)                   <  ;.'irgT,i\  e                              1296 

5  i 

Bamoldswick 

4  '  3  ' 

()44    i                   Glusburn               .     .          1942 

37.1  ' 

Bramslry  (_•) 

179 

30   i)                   <  Jrassing-lon  4X0 

35°  l> 

Holton   Abbey 

169 

47  i                   Hi-bden  209 

'53  u 

Bradley-  (Both) 

54-' 

^^   I                    Hctton   102 

_>j   D 

Brogden 

120 

i  ^   i                    Kettlfwcll-with 

Broughton 

'"5 

•;  ',  1  1                               Starbottom           3  1  7 

191  n 

Burkdrn 

21Q 

04  n                 Kiklwick                              14; 

[6    D 

Hurnsall 

~-yy 
109 

t^                                                                                                                          TJ 

•in  D                 I.inton    ..                             i  [7 

()2     I) 

(  'arlcti  HI 

1644 

•.jy                                                                                          i 

34  D                 Marions  (Both)    ...           270 

-!-}     I 

(  \  miston-with- 

Salterforth                          487 

.}.  J 
OI     I 

l\ilnstj\ 

1  16 

70  I)                 Silsden                               3866 

y  i     i 
I  I  ?2    I 

Cononley 

881 

1^1   '?                 Skipton                            10376 

i  13.4    i 

a  >o8  i 

Cowling 

1828 

100  D                 Stirton-with- 

n^y*5  i 

Cracoe 

OI 

44  D                                   Thorlbv           163 

17    D 

Draughton    

y 

204 

26  I                  Sutton    

1  /    " 

Embsay-with- 

Tlionitoii-with- 

Eastbj 

940 

165  D                                         Earby         2770 

7'7  i 

Threshfield                           i  m 

6-7    n 

HEIGHTS 

OF    TOWNS,    VILLAGES,    AND    HAMLETS. 

[  i..i  i 

FEE1 

1  I  1   1 

Airton 

563 

I  cixor            ...          ...     600 

Litton 

850 

Arm-liffe 

...    700 

Klasbv            ...          ...     420 

Long-  PIVMOII 

495 

Askrigg 

...    726 

Gargrave      ...          ...     358 

Masongill      ... 

54o 

Au^twick 

497 

Gigf^leswick               .     487 

Malham 

637 

Harbon          .  . 

380 

Gisburn                     ...     453 

N'cwton 

440 

Beggarmonds 

...     I  100 

Grassington                     690 

Otterburn 

510 

Bell  Busk     ... 

500 

1  lalton  Gill  ...                 1000 

Oughtershaw 

1180 

Bentham 

34^ 

Halton  \\'cvt            ...     445 

Rathmell 

4*5 

Bordley 

1260 

Ilawc-           ...          ...     802 

Rylston 

560 

Buckden 

.  .  .      788 

Ili-llifield                           468 

Scdbergh 

400 

Burrow 

150 

1  lorton-in-  Ribbles- 

ScNidc 

94- 

Biirton-in-Lonsdale      298 

dale        ...          ...      770 

Settle 

5°7 

Calton 

...      625 

Hubberholme         ...     800 

Skipton 

.  .  .     362 

Casterton 

...      280 

Ingleton       437 

Slaidburn 

.  .     488 

Chapel-le-Dale 

...      800 

Ki'ttlcwell                        730 

Stackhouse 

55° 

Clapham 

510 

Kilnsey         (>jS 

Stainforth 

658 

Cowan  Bridge 

...      284 

Kirkby  Lonsdale       .     200 

Starbottom  ... 

.     748 

Coniston-Cold 

452 

Kirkby  Malhani      ...     612 

Thorn  ton  -in-  Lons- 

Cray   

...    1070 

Kirkby  Stephen      ...     580 

dale 

...     480 

Dent  

472 

Langcliffe     ...          ...     623 

Threshfield  ... 

.  .  .     620 

Draughton  ... 

650 

Lawkland     ...         ...     450 

Tunstall 

105 

Kmbsay 

6.30 

I.inton                         ...     620            \Viggloswurth 

500 

HEIGHTS     OF     ROADS     AND  PASSES. 

FEET 

Fountains  Fell,  from  Silverdale  Head,  cart-road           ...  ...         ...  ...  ...  2180 

Malham  to  Horton  over  Fountains  Fell,  foot-path         ...  ...         ...  2050 

YValdendale  Head,  between  West  Burton  and  Starbottom,  foot-path  ...  ...  2000 

Horse  Head,  between  Buckden  and  Halton  Gill,  cart-road  ...          ...  ...  tQTo 

Firth  Fell,  between  Buckden  and  Litton,  cart-road       ...  ...          ...  ...  ...  1970 

The  Stake,  between  Buckden  and  Bainbridge,  cart-road  ...         ...  ...  183* 

Buttertubs,  between  Hawes  and  Maker,  cart-road        ...  ...          ...  ...  ...  1682 

Coverdale,  between  Middlehara  and  Kettlewell,  cart-road  ...         ...  ...  ...  1625 

Scar  Slit,  between  Kettle  well  and  Arncliffe,  foot-path...  .  ...  ...  1620 

Haws  End,  between  Hawes  and  Semerwater      ...          ...  ...          ...  ..,  ...  1600 

Stockdale  Pass,  between  Settle  and  Malham,  bridle-path  ...         ...  ...  1550 

Helwith  Bridge  by  Dale  Head  to  Litton  ...         ...         ...  1512 

Hawes  to  Ribblehead  by  Newby  Head     ...         ...         ...  ...  ...  ...  1421 

Settle  to  Litton,  or  Halton  Gill  by  Rainscar        ...          ...  ...          ...  ..  ...  1391 

Stainlbrth  to  Kilnsey  by  Malliam  Tarn     ...          ...          ...  ...          ...  ...  ...  1340 

Malham  to  Kilnsey  by  Lee  Gate     ...          ...         ....          ...  ...          ...  ...  ...  1284 

Horton-in-Ribblesdale  to  Beckermonds    ...          ...          ...          ...  ...  1280 

Settle  to  Kirkby  Malham  by  High  Side   ...          ...          ...  ...          ...  ...  ...  1272 


The  following  table  shews  the  altitude  of  the  highest  inhabited 
houses,  inns,  villages,  market-towns,  and  passenger-railway,  in 
Yorkshire  and  in  England,  respectively  : 

The  highest  inhabited  house  in  England  :  FEET 

Rumney's  House,  south  of  Alston,  in  Cumberland,  on  the  Durham  border  ...  1980 
The  highest  inhabited  house  in  Yorkshire  : 

Grouse  House,  near  the  source  of  the  Cover,  in  the  North  Riding      ...          ...      1700 

The  highest  inn  in  England  (it  is  in  Yorkshire)  : 

Tan  Hill,  between  Barras  and  Held,  in  the  North  Riding          ...          1727 

The  highest  village  in  England  :  , 

Colecleugh,  West  Allendale,  Northumberland       ...         ...         ...         ...         ...     1725 

The  highest  village  in  Yorkshire  : 

Greenhow  Hill,  between  Pateley  Bridge  and  Grassington          ...          ...          ...      1320 

The  highest  market-town  in  England  : 

Buxton,  in  Derbyshire  ; — at  the  Palace  Hotel         ...         ...         ...         ...'...     1044 

The  highest  market-town  in  Yorkshire  : 

Hawes,  in  Wensleydale ; — at  the  Shambles...        ...        ...        ...        ...        ...      850 

The  highest  passenger-railway  in  England  : 

The  South   Durham  and   Lancastrian  Union   Railway,   between  Barras  and 

Bowes,  on  Stainmoor         ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...      1378 

The  foregoing  summary  of  a  discussion  on  the  subject  was  furnished  by  the  writer 
to  the  Leeds  Mercury  Supplement  for  April  7th,  1888.  There  is,  however,  an  error  in 
the  original  table  with  respect  to  the  highest  inn  in  Yorkshire,  which  should  be  as 
given  above.  The  Cat  and  Fiddle  on  Buxton  Moors,  in  Cheshire,  is  often  stated  to  be 
the  highest  inn  in  England,  but  it  is  not.  Its  height  is  1690  feet. 


UPPER  WHARFEDALE. 


CHAPTER     I. 


OTLEV  AND  NEIGHBOURHOOD  IN  PREHISTORIC  TIMES. 


( irneral  character  of  Wharfedale — Its  isolation,  healthfulness,  and  surpassing  scenery 
— History  and  antiquities — Rocks  and  wild  flowers — Early  settlements  in  the  parish 
of  Otley — Some  British  and  Roman  roads — Otley  under  the  Romans — Celtic 
survivals— Important  discoveries — Local  evidences  of  Roman  Christianity — Holy 
\\Vlls,  &c. — Otley  in  the  kingdom  of  Elmete — Abounding  British  remains — Otley 
an  early  and  important  religious  centre — The  planting  of  the  Cross — Historical 
and  other  evidences — Local  misconceptions — The  first  Yorkshire  monasteries — 
Dedication  of  churches  to  All  Saints — Local  dissent  in  the  7th  century — Pipin's 
Castle  near  Otley — Saxon  Otley — Meaning  of  Otley — Local  ethnology— The 
inroads  of  the  Danes — The  victory  of  King  Athelstan — His  grant  of  Otley  to  the 
Sec  of  York — The  Archbishop's  jurisdiction  and  privileges — The  first  church — 
A  dual  right  of  sanctuary  at  Otley. 


HARFEDALE  is  surely  "The  Queen  of  Yorkshire 
Dales."  Its  transcendent  natural  charms  and  abounding 
historic  attractions  fix  you,  go  wherever  you  will.  But 
when  you  penetrate  its  upper  reaches  and  climb  the 
great  moorlands,  where  cradled  among  the  lonely 
recesses  of  the  mighty  Cam,  the  infant  Wharfe  peeps  out  on  a  scene 
of  wild,  legendary  fell-land,  that  land  seems  to  favour  more  of  romance 
than  of  history,  sweeping  wide  and  far  into  half-visible  cloud-realms, 
and  seeming  aloof  from  all  human  ken  and  grip.  Soon  the  Jittle 
stream  after  scrambling  and  tumbling  from  his  high  playground  is 
joined  by  other  moorland-mates  and  in  the  course  of  his  rapid  descent 
becomes  a  very  giant  in  his  strength,  wielding  at  times  his  "club  of 
waters "  with  such  force  and  destructiveness  as  few  English  rivers  can. 
During  his  long  sixty  miles'  journey  to  where  he  joins  the  placid  waters 
of  Ouse  within  ten  miles  of  the  city-towers  of  York,  his  ever-widening 
course  gathers  the  runlets  and  rainfall  of  nearly  500  square  miles  of 
field  and  moor  and  fell.  Traversing  in  its  upper  length  a  region  of 
grand  hills  amid  noble  scars  of  terraced  limestone,  and  in  its  lower  a 


26 

rich  storied  vale,  the  entire  course  of  the  river  is  full  of  a  rare  charm,  a 
charm  which  in  variety  of  scenic  beauty,  historic  interest,  and  old- 
world  life,  is  not  surpassed  by  any  river-valley  in  the  kingdom. 
Remote  from  the  common  routes  of  traffic,  it  has,  with  the  exception  of 
the  picturesque-seated  towns  of  Otley  and  Ilkley  (the  latter  a  rising 
Spa),  no  large  centres  of  population,  and  its  ever-increasing  popularity 
as  a  summer  sanatorium  is  such  that  few  of  its  farm-houses  and  public 
hostelries  are  without  their  full  quota  of  visitors  for  five  months  in  the 
year.  In  historical  and  archaeological  attractiveness  the  valley  from 
end  to  end  teems  with  evidences  and  remains  of  the  successive 
occupiers  of  the  soil,  even  from  the  icy  epoch  when  the  majestic 
mountain-glacier  ceased  to  bear  its  burthen  of  Upper  Wharfedale  rocks 
to  where  the  vale  opens  out  on  the  great  Plain  of  York.  To  the 
naturalist  the  district  from  the  varying  character  of  its  rock-formation, 
soil,  and  altitude  also  affords  an  almost  unrivalled  field  of  investigation. 

The  neighbourhood  of  Otley  possesses  evidences  of  having  had  a 
comparatively  large  population  in  the  prehistoric  period,  even  for 
many  centuries  continuously  from  those  dark  barbaric  ages  when  the 
nomadic  habits  of  the  primitive  tribes  had  scarcely  died  out,  when  the 
caverns  and  rock-shelters  of  the  hill-girt  Craven  dales  were  occupied  by 
a  rude  untutored  people,  ill-nurtured  and  ill-clad.  Yet  their  lives 
passed  constantly  amid  a  wild  environment,  strengthened  an  instinctive 
passion  which  made  them  real  Nature-lovers,  and  kept  ever  active  a 
practical  sympathy  for  natural  things.  The  aspects  of  the  visible 
world,  both  its  terrors  and  its  charms,  exercised  a  singular  influence 
over  them,  and  created  beliefs  that  powerfully  prejudiced  the  general 
tenour  of  their  lives.  Out  of  the  mysteries  of  the  elements  there  arose 
practices  which  lingered  in  the  dales  until  quite  recently ;  customs,  as 
the  saying  is,  "  as  old  as  the  hills,"  can  be  clearly  traced  to  their 
primitive  sources,  no  doubt  having  originated  in  the  belief  of  some 
insolvable  force  or  subtle  essence  behind  them,  passing  comprehension. 
For  this  same  poor,  half-savage  being,  though  unable  to  grasp  the  full 
meaning  of  things,  lived  and  died  conscious  of  a  Power  superior  to 
himself,  as  his  burial  temples  plainly  shew.  Daily  at  the  door  of  his 
rude  dwelling  on  the  sides  of  old  Chevin  would  he  with  uplifted  hands 
bless  the  glorious  sun,  or  at  night  beneath  the  star-lit  heavens  solemnly 
bend  himself  in  adoration  ! 

That  Otley  and  much  of  Wharfedale  was  occupied  by  these  old 
Nature  worshippers*  I  shall  hereafter  testify  by  an  examination  of 
local  caves  and  other  remains.  The  valley  at  that  time  was  a  vast 
forest  primeval,  the  haunt  of  the  bear,  wolf,  boar,  pole-cat,  and  other 

•*  Phallic  worship,  it  may  be  noted,  prevailed  at  Adel,  as  the  discovered  objects  prove. 


2? 

;mim;ils  no  longer  existing  with  us.  The  people  made  tracks  through 
these  intricate  forest-lands,  and  when  in  the  course  of  time  they  had 
formed  thrmsrlvt-s  into  something  like  settled  communities,  they  laid 
down  rude  stone  or  even  wooden  causeways,  constructed  of  logs  of 
unbarked  trees,  connecting  their  different  encampments.  From  the 
ancient  historian  Gildas  we  gather  that  the  Roman  legions  on  their 
conquest  of  Britain  in  the  second  and  third  centuries  AD.,  "repaired 
those  ruinate  causeys  laid  down  by  the  ancient  Britons,"  and  built 
other  new  roads  to  all  the  principal  towns  in  the  island.  Some  of  these 
British  trackways  and  Roman  roads  are  recognisable  in  Wharfedale  at 
the  present  day.  and  there  is  little  doubt  that  many  of  our  old  field- 
paths  (unknown  in  modern  America)  are  survivals  of  primitive  British 
trackways. 

Within  that  area  which  was  afterwards  constituted  the  parish  of 
Otley  we  have  traces  of  such  roads  and  also  several  ancient  stone 
circles  and  sculptured  rocks  (notably  on  Hawksworth  and  Burley 
Moors*)  as  well  as  other  remains,  which  are  doubtless  as  old  as  the 
earliest  Celtic  occupation  of  the  neighbourhood.  Various  names,  too, 
and  particularly  that  of  the  grand  old  Chevin,f  which  rears  its  mighty 
crest  behind  the  town,  plainly  indicate  that  there  was  a  British 
settlement  in  the  vicinity,  and  that  this  at  one  time  was  included  in  the 
great  Brit- Welsh  province  of  Strathclyde,  which  stretched  from  the 
Mersey  on  the  south  through  the  Pennine  forests  of  Lancashire  and 
Yorkshire  northwards  to  the  Cheviot  Hills,  a  vast  region  inhabited  by 
a  brave  and  hardy  race  which  long  defied  the  power  of  superior  arms. 
Otley  lay  between  the  old  Brigantian  cities  or  stations  of  Ilkley  and 
AdelJ  eleven  miles  apart,  both  afterwards  occupied  by  the  Romans, 
and  the  old  Roman  road,  doubtless  on  the  site  of  a  well-trodden  British 
trackway,  connecting  the  two  camps  passed  over  the  Chevin  to  the 
south  of  the  York  Gate  plantation.  That  the  district  was  a  strong 
refuge  of  the  British  is  evidenced  from  the  unusual  number  of 
characteristic  earthworks  in  the  immediate  district,  splendid  remains  of 
which  may  be  seen  in  the  camps  at  Ilkley,  Addingham,  Nessfield, 
Bramhope,  Castley,  and  Blubberhouses,  besides  numerous  earthen  forts 
and  enclosures  on  the  moor-sides,  the  latter  thrown  up  in  all 
probability  by  the  startled  natives  on  the  first  Roman  invasion  of  the 
district.  At  Burley,  about  two  miles  to  the  west  of  Otley,  and  within 

*  One  of  these  circles  is  described  and  illustrated  in  the  author's  Old  Bin^liy, 
pagt-  45- 

t  From  Gym-Celtic  cef'n,  a  ridge  of  high  land,  like  the  ("hrviots  between  Knglaiid 
and  Scotland,  and  the  Cevenm-s  in  France. 

£  Adel,  a  Celtic  station  held  by  odal  tenure.  See  Bishop  Stubbs'  Const.  History, 
i.  57,  with  authorities  there  cited. 


28 

the  Saxon  parish,  there  was  doubtless  also  a  Roman  outpost  to  the 
great  camp  at  Ilkley,  afterwards  occupied  by  the  Saxons,  as  the  ancient 
name  Burghley  appears  to  indicate.  From  the  short  manuscript 
history  of  Wharfedale,  written  in  1807,  elsewhere  alluded  to,  I  gather 
that  on  the  enclosure  of  the  Chevin,  more  than  a  century  ago,  some 
apparent  house-steads  were  removed  in  order  to  turn  the  land  over  to 
the  plough.  They  were  on  the  west  part  of  the  common  called 
Dibendale  (Cym.-Celt.  dwfn,  deep),  then  the  property  of  Mr.  Wm. 
Mounsey,  of  Otley.  The  ruins  were  locally  known  as  the  "  Bishop's 
Stables,"  and  some  of  the  walls  were  quite  a  yard  thick.  Unfortunately 
we  have  no  more  definite  information  concerning  them.  A  little  south 
of  the  Bradford  road  also  on  West  Chevin  is  a  field  called  Jack  Close,  at 
one  time  "no  man's  land."*  In  the  tithe-award  plan  I  also  find  mention 
of  a  Camp  Close  on  the  east  side  of  Busk  Lane  on  the  Pool  Road,  not 
far  from  Gallows  Hill.  Likewise  on  the  south-east  side  of  Maple  Bank, 
the  residence  of  Mr.  Wm.  Dawson,  is  a  piece  of  land  called  Munbury 
Field,  which  seems  to  imply  a  similarly  protective  enclosure.  The  A.-S. 
mujid-bora,  means  a  bearer  of  protection,  from  the  substantive  mund,  a 
hand,  a  defence,  help  or  security.  In  the  direction  of  Menston  we  have 
also  a  Burras  Lane,  and  a  High  Burras  or  Barras,  which  I  am  inclined 
to  think  is  equivalent  to  the  Barass  near  the  Roman  road  over 
Stainmoor,  and  to  the  "  Brass  Castles  "  near  our  Roman  highways  in 
West  Yorkshire.!  The  name  may  here,  however,  be  a  personal  one. 

The  idea  entertained  by  many  writers  that  Otley  was  the 
Cambodunum  of  the  Romans  may  be  mentioned  only  to  be  dismissed, 
for  the  simple  fact  of  the  unnatural  proximity  of  Otley  to  the  great 
station  of  Olicana  (Ilkley),  not  six  miles  distant.  Cambodunum  is  now 
assigned  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Huddersfield,  probably  Slack, \ 
in  accordance  with  the  distance  of  the  different  stations  between 
Mancunium  (Manchester)  and  Eboractsm  (York),  lying  along  a  line  ot 
march  through  Tadcaster  (Calcarid).  Nor  is  it  likely  the  name  Otho, 
which  appears  in  the  Domesday  name  of  Otley  (Othelai},  proclaims  a 
Roman  ascription,  bestowed  in  honor  of  the  Emperor  Otho,  who  was 
born  at  Rome  in  A.D.  32,  and  died  in  A.D,  69,  or  many  years  before  the 
Roman  soldiery  penetrated  these  parts.  Indeed,  it  is  not  till  the 
advent  of  Agricola  that  we  learn  anything  definite  with  respect  to  the 
country  or  people  in  North  England.  The  coins  that  have  been 
found  at  Otley  are  chiefly  of  the  second  and  third  centuries,  when 
the  local  Britons  were  under  the  Roman  power  and  an  era  of  peace 

*  See  Seebohm's  English  Village  Community,  p.  6.         f  See  Old  Ringley,  p.  377. 

J  See  Yorks.  Archl.  Journal,  vol.  iv.  This  place  must  not  be  confounded  with  the 
Campodunum  of  Bede,  probably  Doncaster  (Danum),  where  Paulinus  built  a  church  in 
630.  See  Watson's  Halifax  and  Whitaker's  Loidis  and  Elmete,  p.  375-7. 


2Q 

prevailed.  The  fact,  however,  should  be  recorded  that  a  rare  first 
brass  coin  of  Nero  (A.D.  54-68)  was  found  in  a  well  at  Joppa,  in 
Leeds,  and  I  have  also  mentioned  the  discovery  of  a  coin  of  this 
Emperor  in  the  gorge  of  How  Stean,  in  Upper  Nidderdale,*  but  this, 
of  course,  does  not  premise  the  Roman  occupation  of  the  district  at 
that  time.  In  the  churchyard  at  Otley  there  was  found  in  March, 
1888,  a  number  of  Roman  coins,  dating  from  the  reign  of  Hadrian 
(A.D.  117-138)  to  that  of  the  savage  pagan  Emperor  Decius,  whose 
short  sovereignty  of  two  and  a  half  years  (A.D.  248-50)  was  almost 
wholly  occupied  in  persecuting  devout  Christians,  thousands  of  whom 
were  cruelly  tortured,  and  even  crucified,  or  otherwise  put  to  death. 
Singularly,  these  coins  were  found  at  a  depth  of  eight  feet  from  the 
surface,  and  lay  amongst  a  quantity  of  human  bones,  broken  pottery, 
and  bits  of  flint  and  charcoal.  They  seem,  indeed,  to  suggest  a  burial 
on  the  site,  probably  in  the  third  century,  and  it  is  noteworthy  that 
the  same  site  should  have  been  appropriated  for  the  burial-ground 
of  the  early  Christian  church  adjoining.  An  unmortared  cobble- 
stone tomb,  which  I  shall  mention  in  the  account  of  the  church,  may 
possibly  be  of  this  date.  Two  of  the  carved  stone  crosses  discovered 
in  the  walls  of  the  church  are  accounted  by  Dr.  Waldstein,  Lecturer  on 
Archaeology  at  Cambridge,  to  be  distinctly  Roman-Christian  in  design 
and  workmanship.  Other  Roman  evidences  also  appear.  Dr.  Shaw, 
of  Otley,  relates  (1830),  that  he  found  a  coin  of  Aurelianus  (A.D. 
270-5)  in  his  garden,  and  that  a  farmer  at  Norwood,  while  ploughing, 
turned  up  as  many  Roman  coins  as  would  fill  a  pint  measure.  They 
ranged  in  date  from  Hadrian  (A.D.  117-138)10  Constantius  (who  died 
at  York  in  306),  and  Constantine,  his  prosperous  son,  rightly  surnamed 
The  Great,  who  some  say  was  born  at  York,f  and  died  in  337.  Coins 
of  his  reign,  it  may  be  observed,  bear  for  the  first  time  the  Christian 
emblems  of  the  dove,  cross,  &c. 

Constantine  was  the  ardent  partisan  and  promoter  of  Christianity, 
which  by  him  was  raised  to  the  position  of  a  State  religion,  and  his 
mother,  the  Empress  Helena,  the  reputed  discoverer  of  the  true  Cross, 
is  commemorated  in  the  name  of  many  holy-wells  in  the  dales  of  the 
West  Riding.  There  is  one  at  Adel,  another  near  the  camp  at 
Bramhope,  another  near  Tadcaster,  one  at  Denton,  in  Otley  parish, 
and  a  fifth  at  Burnsall ;  Wharfedale  being  thus  greatly  honored  by  this 
early  Christian  lady.  That  Christianity  actually  prevailed  in  Wharfe- 
dale during  the  latter  days  of  the  Roman  occupation,  and  was 
continued  by  the  Roman-British  inhabitants  of  Elmet,  I  think  the 

*  See  Nidderdale  and  the  Garden  of  the  Nidd,  p.  433. 

f  See  Drake's  Eboratum,  and  Gibbons'  contradiction  in  Roman  Empire. 


records  of  the  early  Fathers,  and  the  local  relics  already  mentioned, 
amply  prove.  From  Tertullan  (ca  206)  we  gather  that  the  Britons 
acknowledged  Christ,  while  St.  Chrysostom  tells  us  that  "  churches  and 
altars "  had  been  erected  in  Britain  in  the  fourth  century,  when  he 
wrote,  and  that  "  men  may  be  heard  discussing  different  points  of 
Scripture  in  different  languages,  but  not  with  different  belief,"  and 
again,  St.  Jerome  tells  us  that  three  British  bishops,  namely,  of  York, 
London,  and  probably  Lincoln,  were  represented  at  the  Council  of 
Aries  in  A.D.  314,  and  that  British  bishops  took  part  in  the  Council 
of  Sardica  in  A.D.  347.  Perhaps  the  scarcity  of  contemporary  Christian 
relics  in  these  parts  of  Yorkshire  may  be  owing  to  the  repeated 
subsequent  supremacy  of  the  pagans,  who  no  doubt  destroyed  every 
tangible  object  of  the  faith. 

According  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  the  Romans  withdrew 
from  Britain  in  the  year  418,  and  our  knowledge  of  events  in  this  part 
of  Yorkshire  for  the  next  two  centuries  is  somewhat  obscure.  We 
know  that  the  district  was  harassed  by  invasions  of  the  Picts  and  Scots, 
and  that  the  heathen  Angles  and  Saxons  had  swarmed  into  the 
country,  and  that  for  a  long  period  there  was  a  terrible  warfare 
between  them  and  the  native  Britons?*  The  latter  had  become 
possessed  of  improved  methods  ot  resistance,  learned  from  the  Latins, 
and  falling  back  upon  their  old  camps  and  trenches,  managed  for  a 
time  to  keep  the  foeman  at  bay.  Sometimes,  however,  as  contem- 
porary chroniclers  tell  us,  they  "  fled  from  the  Angles  like  fire,"  and 
betook  themselves  to  the  woody  fastnesses  and  marsh-protected  hills 
and  moors  of  Craven,  where  they  remained  and  dwelt  in  comparative 
security.  There  can  now  be  little  doubt  that  Otley  and  the  whole  of 
Wharfedale,  with  the  moors  between  the  Wharfe  and  Aire,  were 
included  in  the  undefined  British  kingdom  of  Elmet,  or  Elmete,  which 
maintained  its  independence  against  the  Anglian  usurpers  for  more 
than  100  years.  The  abounding  British  place-names  in  this  territory, 
and  the  very  prolific  character  of  coeval  remains  in  the  shape  of  camps, 
dikes,  enclosures,  and  other  earthworks,  together  with  tumuli,  marked 
stones,  weapons  of  stone  and  flint,  and  various  ornaments  and  imple- 
ments of  warfare  and  the  chase,  present  strong  evidence  to  support 
this.  Extending  from  its  supposed  frontier  stations  of  Sherburn-in- 
Elmet,  and  Barwick-in-Elmet,t  where  are  vast  earthworks,  it  included 
the  land  northwards  and  westwards  towards  Adel,  and  the  north  of 
Leeds,  where  is  a  large  camp,  &c.,  on  Woodhouse  Moor,  and  thence 

*  On  the  east  side  of  Otley,  near  the  river,  is  some  land  called  Elam,  which,  if  not 
derived  from  the  A.-S.  hie  (high),  and  lam  (mud,  clay),  may  signify  the  A.-S.  call 
(foreign),  and  ham  (a  home),  a  term  applied  by  the  later  conquerors  to  their  British 
predecessors.  There  is  an  Elam  near  Keighley  in  a  similar  position,  near  the  river  Aire. 


31 

by  Horsforth,  with  its  ancient  Elf  Knowle,  Rawdon,  where  a  British 
ton  of  gold  was  found  on  the  Billing,  Yeadon,  with  its  primitive 
remains,  Baildon,  with  its  numerous  Brit-Welsh  tumuli,  &c.,  and  the 
great  extent  ot  Rumbalds  Moor  to  Skipton,  and  even  along  the  high 
ground  to  Grassington  and  the  entrenchments  near  Kettlewell,  which 
all  help  to  mark  out  this  territory  as  one  of  pre-eminently  archaeologu  al 
interest,  and  in  the  richness  and  variety  of  its  British  remains  it  is 
probably  unrivalled  by  any  similar  extent  of  country  in  England. 

This  province  of  Elmet  was  annexed  to  Northumbria  by  Edwin, 
its  king,  who  was  baptised  in  the  faith  of  the  Christians  according  to 
Bede,  on  Easter  Day,  627,  in  the  Church  of  St.  Peter  the  Apostle,  at 
York,  which  he  himself  had  built  of  timber.  The  probability  is  that 
the  British  Christians  of  Elmet  would  long  ago  have  given  themselves 
up  to  the  adjoining  kingdom  of  Deira,  which  with  Bernicia  afterwards 
formed  the  kingdom  of  Northumbria,  had  that  kingdom  acknowledged 
the  true  God,  but  they  were  loth  to  fall  into  the  power  of  the  heathen. 
The  conversion  of  Edwin  gave  a  fit  opportunity  for  the  amalgamation, 
and  thus  it  is  we  learn  from  Nennius  that  the  British  king  was 
"  expelled  "  or  abdicated  in  his  favour,  not  that  any  battle  was  fought, 
but  that  Edwin,  who  was  corrfptete  master  of  all  the  country  between 
the  Humber  and  the  Tyne,  quietly  acceded  to  the  old  Christian 
territory  of  Elmet.  The  absence  of  heathen  place-names  in  this 
territory  seems  to  confirm  this. 

This  happy  state  of  things  however  did  not  last  long,  for  in  the 
year  633,  Edwin  the  Good  after  reigning  17  years  was  slain  by  the 
heathen  Penda,  aided  as  he  undoubtedly  was  by  Cadwalla,  King  of 
the  "Christian  Britons,  at  the  battle  of  Heathfield,  or  Hatfield  Chase, 
and  the  Saxon  Christians  had  to  flee  for  their  lives.  Paulinus,  the  great 
Roman  missionary,  left  the  country  with  Edwin's  widow  and  went  back 
to  her  home  in  Kent,  having  indeed  done  much  preaching  in  the  north, 
but  established  no  church,  nor  altar,  nor  cross.  He  afterwards  became 

f  In  a  single  deed  of  A.D.  1361,  cited  by  Dodsworth,  South  Kirkby,  7  miles  east  of 
Barnsley,  is  described  as  Kirkby-in-Elmet,  from  which  circumstance  it  would  be  rash 
to  .-ay  positively  that  this  place  was  included  in  the  old  British  province  of  Elim 
places  of  this  name,  or  compounded  with  it,  as  El-met,  El-meten,  El-land,  &c.,  are 
scattered  throughout  England,  and  doubtless  have  the  same  significance.  Inasmuch  as 
I  consider  the  name  explained  by  the  custom  of  the  Saxons,  as  of  most  primitive 
peoples,  to  designate  those  who  were  estranged  from  them  as  foreigners,  and  in  this 
-case  we  must  interpret  Elmete  as  a  derivative  from  the  A.-S.  el,  foreign,  and  mete, 
bounds,  that  is,  the  mete  or  bounds  of  the  stranger  or  foreigner.  Thoresby  and  his 
followers  are  unfortunate  in  the  derivation  of  this  name  from  a  supposed  abundance 
ol  elm  trees  in  the  Wood  of  Elmet.  This  territory  was  overgrown  principally  with  ash 
and  oak,  especially  the  latter,  which  was  religiously  preserved  and  cultivated  lor  the 
sake  of  the  mast  it  yielded  for  fattening  hogs,  and  also  as  food  for  the  people  in  times 
of  scarcity. 


32 

Bishop  of  Rochester  and  died  in  644.  For  a  year  Northumbria  was 
again  divided  into  its  rival  factions  of  Deira  and  Bernicia,  but  by  the 
death  of  Edwin  the  British  Christians  were  actually  in  possession  of  all 
Northumbria,  which  was  then  governed  for  nearly  two  years  by  a  King 
who  represented  the  ancient  Christianity  of  the  British  Church.  He 
was,  however,  himself  a  Briton,  and  opposed  to  a  violent  Saxon 
faction,  who  whilst  approving  his  Christianity  did  not  support  his 
sovereignty.  In  635  he  was  overthrown,  not  on  religious  grounds,  but 
on  political,  by  the  Saxon  St.  Oswald,  who  thereupon  succeeded  to  the 
conjoined  kingdom,  and  during  his  reign  the  great  northern  see  of 
Lindisfarne,  the  parent  of  nearly  all  the  churches  from  the  Humber  to 
the  Tweed,  was  established.*  Oswald  was  slain  in  battle  by  the 
heathens  in  642,  and  there  was  some  years  of  strife,  but  in  655  the 
great  pagan  King  Penda  was  slain  at  Winwidfeld  (said  to  be  Whin- 
moor,  near  Leeds),  and  Mercia,  together  with  all  Northumbria,  once 
more  and  ever  afterwards  embraced  the  Christian  religion.  This  famous 
battle,  in  all  probability  fought  on  old  Christian  territory  gave  a  great 
impetus  to  the  faith  in  Yorkshire  and  the  north  ;  and  twelve  monasteries, 
each  upheld  by  ten  families,  were  founded  in  Northumbria  to  com- 
memorate the  event.  One  of  these  was  on  the  Wharfe,  at  Collingham, 
where  the  church  is  dedicated  to  St.  Oswald.  Only  two  other 
Wharfedale  churches,  it  may  be  noted,  bear  dedications  to  the  Scotic 
Saxon  Saint,  namely,  Guiseley  and  Arncliffe,  though  it  is  not  unlikely 
Leathley  church  was  dedicated  to  St.  Oswald,  but  the  ascription  is 
now  lost. 

One  important  fact,  which  has  not  before  been  pointed  out,  is  that 
very  few  of  the  churches  in  the  Celtic  Christian  territory  of  Elmete,  in 
which  Otley  was  situated,  have  retained  in  their  dedications  the  names 
of  the  old  Saxon  promoters  of  Christianity.  Nearly  all  the  principal 
and  most  ancient  churches,  that  arose  out  of  the  Saxon  parishes,  such 
as  Sherburn-in-Elmet,  Barwick-in-Elmet,  Thorp-Arch,  Bardsey,  Hare- 
wood,  Bramham,  Spofforth,  Kirkby  Overblow,  Otley,  Ilkley,  Bingley, 
and  Broughton-in-Craven,  are  all  dedicated  to  All  Saints.  And  this, 
though  some  of  the  original  dedications  may  be  lost,  it  is  well  to 
remember,  is  an  early  Saxon  dedication,  and  should  be  borne  in  mind 
in  any  estimate  of  the  early  Romish  influence  in  this  district. 

The  influence  of  the  see  of  Lindisfarne,  the  direct  fruit  of  the 
teaching  of  Columba  in  lona,  had  made  itself  felt  throughout  the 
present  Yorkshire,  and  the  Celtic  priesthood  had  obtained  a  firm 
footing  almost  everywhere.  Their  cult,  says  Raine,  was  all-prevalent 

*  The  diocese  of  Lindisfarne  covered  pretty  nearly  the  whole  of  the  Northumbrian 
kingdom,  as  well  as  Staffordshire,  Cheshire,  and  part  of  Shropshire. 


33 

in  this  country,  Kent  alone  owing  its  Christianity  to  the  Roman 
missionaries.*  It  is  therefore  not  surprising  that  when  the  Synod 
of  Whitby  abolished  the  system  of  the  Celts  in  664,  there  was  a 
considerable  dissension  among  the  Britons,  who  preferred  to  isolate 
themselves  and  follow  their  accustomed  rule  rather  than  obey  the 
Roman  Catholic  decree,  especially  as  it  affected  the  celebration  of 
Easter.  The  Abbess  Hilda,,  who  had  been  ordained  by  the  Scots, 
expressed  her  strong  sympathy  with  the  opposition  of  the  British 
priests,  though  she  afterwards  conformed  to  the  Papal  decree,  and 
remained  at  Whitby  till  her  death  in  680.  St.  Heiv,  too,  the  first 
woman  in  Northumbria  who  took  upon  her  the  habit  and  life  of  a 
nun,  was  reared  in  the  Celtic  belief,  and  founded  the  monastery  at 
Hartlepool,  but  coming  into  Yorkshire  she  established  a  monastery  at 
or  near  Tadcaster,  possibly  at  Healaugh,  and  doubtless,  like  Hilda, 
erected  several  cells  to  the  parent  house,  one  of  which,  in  all  probability, 
was  at  Bingley,  where,  in  a  retired  part  of  the  parish,  the  site  has  been 
known  from  time  immemorial  as  St.  Heiv's  (St.  Ives).f  The  Celtic 
monastery  at  Ripon,  which  had  been  founded  by  King  Oswy  shortly 
before  the  Synod  of  Whitby  in  664,  was  afterwards  handed  over  to 
Wilfrid,  because  he  had  adduced  such  evidence  in  favour  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  usage  that  the  King  and  court  were  persuaded  ;  for,  said 
Wilfrid,  "  we  found  the  same  practised  in  Italy  and  France,  in  Africa, 
Asia,  Egypt,  and  Greece,  and  all  the  world,  wherever  the  church  of 
Christ  is  spread  abroad  through  several  nations  and  tongues  at  one 
and  the  same  time;  except  only  these  and  their  accomplices  in 
obstinacy,  I  mean  the  Picts  and  the  Britons,  who  foolishly,  in  these  two 
remote  islands  of  the  world,  and  only  in  part  even  of  them,  oppose  all 
the  rest  of  the  universe.''^ 

Thus  we  find  even  at  this  remote  period  religious  dissent  had  got 
a  firm  hold  en  the  people  of  the  West  Riding  of  Yorkshire,  which  their 
vigorous  independence  has  retained  to  this  day.  Bede  tells  us  that  the 
Catholic  institutions  daily  gained  strength;  yet  in  731,  or  nearly 
seventy  years  after  the  adoption  ot  the  Roman  usage,  the  Britons  were 
still  perverse,  and  "  wrongfully  and  from  wicked  custom  oppose  the 
appointed  Easter  of  the  whole  Catholic  Church  ;  "  otherwise  he  says 
they  are  under  subjection  to  the  English.^  It  is  difficult  to  reconcile 
these  facts  with  the  statement  of  Father  Haigh  that  Eadberht,  King  of 
Northumbria  (738  to  757),  after  the  capture  of  Dumbarton  from  the 
Strathclyde  Britons,  came  into  Yorkshire  with  Angus,  King  of  the 

*  Preface  to  Lives  of  the  Arclibishaps  of  York.     (Rolls  Ser.) 
f  See  the  author's  Old  Bingley.         £  Bede,  Eccl.  Hist.,  Book  ii.,  c.  xxv. 
§  Ib..  Book  iii.,  c.  xxviii.,  and  v.,  c.  xxiii. 


fc-jLA$cAv-     v 

^t4  <& 


34 

Picts,  and  in  the  vicinity  of  Bingley  engaged  in  battle  with  the  Britons, 
with  whom  he  afterwards  ratified  a  treaty  which  he  believes  to  be 
recorded  on  the  Rune  stone  in  Bingley  Church.*  The  evidence  really 
points  to  the  fact  that  the  Britons  of  Airedale  and  Wharfedale,  though 
Christian  dissenters,  were  at  this  time  already  subject  to  the  Anglo- 
Saxons,  and  in  a  civil  sense  were  at  peace  with  them.  Indeed  they 
gloried  in  the  successes  of  Eadberht,  himselt  a  wise  governor  and  a 
devout  Christian,  who  afterwards,  in  757,  was  shorn  and  entered  his 
brother's  monastery  at  York,  where  both  of  them  are  buried.  We  are 
told  that  the  fame  of  his  excellence  and  of  his  valour  spread  far  and 
wide,  and  that  Pipin,  King  of  France,  sent  emissaries  to  him  laden  with 
splendid  gifts.  It  is  not  improbable  that  the  traditional  site  known  as 
Pipin's  Castle,  on  the  verge  of  the  original  parish  of  Otley,  may  have 
something  to  do  with  commemorating  these  events.  There  is  a 
tradition  that  the  early  Kings  of  Northumbria,  from  the  annexation  of 
Elmete  by  Edwin,  about  630,  resided  at  Barwick-in-Elmet,  where  the 
extensive  artificial  mound,  or  burh,  adjoining  the  supposed  British 
entrenchments  was  thrown  up  by  the  Anglo-Saxon  rulers,  and  held  by 
them  for  an  indefinite  period.  It  is  known  by  the  name  of  Hall  Tower 
Hill.  Dr.  Shaw  expresses  a  belief  that  Edwin,  the  Northumbrian 
king,  had  a  temporary  residence  at  Otley,  but  of  this  there  is  no 
proper  evidence. 

It  was  doubtless  during  this  period  that  Otley  was  first  colonised 
by  the  Angles  (not  unlikely  within  the  extensive  fosse  of  the  old 
Norman  Manor  House),  and  received  its  name  of  Othelai,  or  Otelai  (as 
variously  spelled  in  Domesday),!  most  probably  from  the  chief  of  the 
family.  Some  writers,  however,  have  supposed  the  name  to  be  derived 
from  the  oat-fields,  for  which  the  district  was  once  famous.  On  the  same 
basis  one  might  conclude  that  the  neighbouring  townships  of  Burley 
and  Wheatley  were  called  after  certain  barley  and  wheat  fields,  thougrT 
bere  is  Anglo-Saxon  for  barley,!  while  ata  (pron.  ota)  is  oat,  and  hwceta 
is  wheat,  and  these  versions  at  any  rate  of  oat  and  wheat  render  such 
assumption  plausible.  But  the  district  is  essentially  Saxon  in  its 
language  and  laws,  with  traces  of  the  Celt  surviving  in  the  customs 
of  the  manor. 

The  year  793  witnessed  the  first  recorded  invasion  of  Northumbria 
by  the  heathen  Danes,  who  destroyed  the  church  at  Lindisfarne,  and 

*  See  the  author's  Old  Bingley,  p.   60-1. 

f  Observe  the  Saxon  th  retained  in  the  first  spelling',  a  very  unusual  occurrence 
in  Norman  writing's.     There  is  an  Otley,  a  parish  town  in  Suffolk. 

%  Burley    in    Domesday    is    Burgelei,    undoubtedly    named    from    some   fort   or 
enclosure. 


35 

the  monastery  at  Monk  Wearmouth,  but  they  do  not  appear  to  have 
penetrated  tar  into  Vorkshire  until  the  s;ivage  attack  on  York  in  867, 
when  thrv  began  to  spread  themselves  over  the  country,  burning, 
plundering,  and  wasting  villages  and  the  cultivated  lands  on  all  sides. 
Not  a  minster  or  holy  place  was  left  standing,  and  saving  in  name  the 
Christian  church  in  Yorkshire  did  not  exist.  There  is  a  very  interesting 
memorial  of  this  period  in  Otley  Church,  which  has  been  mistaken  to 
commemorate  a  Roman  standard-bearer,  but  it  is  unmistakably  a 
memorial  portrait  of  some  Christian  Viking  warrior  whose  valour  in 
conquest  has  earned  for  him  an  honorable  sepulchre  at  Otley.  The 
stone,  which  appears  to  have  been  burnt,  measures  1  1  inches  at  its 
greatest  length,  is  8  inches  wide  at  the  bottom,  7  inches  wide  at  the 
top,  and  2^  inches  thick.  An  engraving  of  it  is  on  the  next  page, 
together  with  another  view  of  the  same,  shewing  the  debased  scroll- 
pattern  on  the  edge,  and  also  some  fragments  of  the  exquisite  art  of 
St.  Wilfrid's  time.  Upon  this  "warrior-stone"  Mr.  W.  G.  Collingwood, 
the  well-known  authority  on  early  sculptured  crosses,  writes  to  me  as 
follows  :  — 

I  find  your  Otley  stone  (of  which  you  sent  me  a  photograph)  bears  a  close 
rcM-mblanrr  to  the  Scandinavian  figures  in  Westmorland  and  Teesdale.  Its  costume 
is  like  that  of  the  (Josforth  cross,  with  the  usual  kirtle  and  belt,  but  its  treatment  is 
quite  different.  Still  more  different  is  it  to  the  flowing  draperies  of  Anglian  saints  on 
Hedda's  tomb  at  Peterborough,  or  on  the  Kuthwell  cross.  When  we  look  at  the  edges 
of  the  stone  we  find  other  reason  for  the  .same  conclusion.  The  Anglian  scroll,  done 
cheaply,  became  that  of  the  Leeds  cross  ;  done  not  only  cheaply  but  without  feeling,  it 
degenerates  into  a  coarse  rolled  cord,  like  this  on  your  Otley  fragment.  The  inter- 
lacing, losing  all  intellectual  and  naturalistic  intention,  becomes  what  we  have  here, 
and  what  we  see  elsewhere,  not  rejuvinated  into  Norse  dragons,  but  degenerate  and 
associated  with  the  decadence  of  Anglian  art  under  Danish  influence. 

These  old  Viking  warriors  made  sad  havoc  of  our  district,  but  in 
937  Athelstan  "the  glorious"  obtained  a  great  victory  over  the 
combined  armies  of  the  Danes  and  Scots  at  the  celebrated  battle  of 
Brunanburh,*  after  which  they  confirmed  the  peace  by  pledge  and 
by  oaths,  and  according  to  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  renounced  all  idolatry. 
This  decisive  encounter  raised  Athelstan  high  in  the  estimation  of  his 
countrymen,  as  well  as  in  the  opinion  of  many  foreign  potentates,  the 
most  powerful  of  whom  was  Otho,  who  succeeded  to  the  throne  of  the 
Roman  Empire  in  938,  and  amid  great  rejoicings  took  to  wife  King 
Athelstan's  sister,  Elgiva. 

It  is  at  this  period  that  we  obtain  definite  written  information 
respecting  Otley  and  the  surrounding  neighbourhood.  Athelstan,  who 
attributed  his  successes  to  the  interposition  of  divine  favour,  had  made 


*  Near   Dunbar,   according   to  Syrneon,   of    Durham.      ,SVv    lvalue's    York 
'/'owns  series),  p.   37;  also  Sir  Jas.    H.   Ramsay's  Foundations  <if  England  (1898),  ix., 
284  n.  285-6,  with  plan  of  earthworks,  shewing  Bourne  in  Lincolnshire  to  be  the  site. 


A  VIKING   WARRIOR'S   MEMORIAL  AT   OTLEY. 


SOME    FRAGMENTS   OF  ANGLIAN   CROSSES   AT   OTLEY. 


37 

a  vow  that  in  the  event  of  the  overthrow  of  the  pagans  he  would  most 
liberally  endow  the  three  ancient  churches  of  JVork,  Beverley,  and 
Ripon.  Having,  as  stated  above,  achieved  the  success  wished  for,  he 
proceeded  to  confer  lands  and  privileges  on  these  struggling  centres  of 
religion  in  a  manner  and  with  a  liberality  never  previously  heard  of. 
The  cause  of  Christ  then  truly  prospered.  To  the  cathedral  church  at 
York,  over  which  Wulstan,  i6th  Archbishop,  then  presided,  he  gave 
the  rich  lordship  of  Sherburn  (in  Ehnet),  likewise  the  Archbishop 
received  the  manors  of  Cawood,  Wistow,  and  Otley,  together  with  the 
whole  of  the  villages  and  territory  which  at  that  time  belonged  to  them. 
By  this  grant  the  three  last-mentioned  places  were  formed  into  a 
particular  legal  jurisdiction,  over  which  the  Archbishops,  as  hereditary 
lords,  civil  as  well  as  spiritual,  exercised  full  control.  Many  and 
various  were  the  powers  and  privileges  they  enjoyed,  including  free 
warren,  sac  and  soc  (or  the  privilege  of  determining  causes,  levying 
fines,  &c.,  within  their  precincts),*  toll,  team  (the  right  of  holding  an 
inquest  as  to  the  title  to  goods),!  infangtheof  (or  the  right  to  judge  and 
execute  thieves),  assize  of  bread  and  ale,  merchet  and  lecherwite 
(customs  of  a  barbarous  age),  lands  free  and  quit  from  all  suit  and 
exaction,  with  return  of  writs  and  pleas,  &c.  This  extensive  franchise 
was  termed  the  Liberty  of  Cawood,  Wistow  and  Otley,  whose  churches 
possessed  the  right  of  sanctuary,!  as  also  appertained  to  the  similarly 
enfranchised  domains  of  Ripon  and  Beverley,  the  limits  of  which  were 
defined  by  stone  crosses.§  But  Otley  was  a  locum  privtleipatum,  not 
only  offering  sanctuary  within  the  walls  of  the  church,  but  the 
Archbishop  in  person,  before  the  Conquest,  when  in  residence  had  the 
power  of  granting  protection  in  the  same  manner.  The  Archbishops 
had  also  halls  or  palaces,  where  they  occasionally  resided,  as  well  as 
court-houses,  prisons,  and  justices  at  Sherburn,  Cawood,  Otley,  Ripon, 
and  Beverley.  About  these  we  shall  learn  more  presently. 

*  An  expressed  grant  of  sac  and  soc,  so  general  after  the  Conquest,  should  in  the 
reign  of  Athelstan  be  received  with  caution.  See  Earle,  iMiid  Charters,  xxiii. 

f  See  Lams  of  Athelstan  (Schmid)  ii.  c.  ix. 

$  The  right  of  sanctury  belonged,  not  only  to  the  fabric  of  the  church,  but  also,  by 
the  laws  of  Athelstan  (A.D.  924-30),  to  men  of  position,  and  invariably  to  the 
Archbishop.  The  laws  of  vEthelred  (ca  A.D.  1000)  mention  the  different  degrees  of 
churches  and  the  protection  even  in  some  cases  afforded  by  the  village  ale-house. 
See  also  Pollock  and  Maitland's  Hist.  I'- tiff.  f.ir^'.  ii.,  590. 

$  Two  charters  of  Athelstan's  grant  to  Ripon  are  printed  in  the  Monaxticoti,  and 
also  in  the  Mi-mot iuls  of  Kiftau.  I  may  further  point  out  that  the  rhyming  charter  of 
Athelstan,  though  evidently  a  fourteenth  century  version  of  a  genuine  original,  is 
an  interesting  survival  of  the  ancient  Aryan  method  ot  transmitting  events  and 
traditions  in  a  metrical  form  to  facilitate  remembrance.  The  practice  is  still  in 
vogue  among  the  Hindoos  and  other  primitive  nations. 


CHAPTER    II. 


RECORDS  OF  THE  PARISH  OF  OTLEY  FROM  THE  NORMAN 
CONQUEST. 

Settlement  and  extent  of  the  Norman  parish  of  Otley — The  feudal  manor,  how  worked 
— Township  areas — Guiseley  and  the  origin  of  its  parish — Baildon  and  Bramhope 
in  Domesday — The  extinct  wapentake  of  Gereburg-,  its  origin  and  purpose — Claro 
wapentake  and  the  Curia  Regis — The  origin  of  lordships — The  gallows  at  Otley — 
Hanging  a  bellman — Citation  of  local  executions — Rewards  for  felling  thieves- 
Warrant  against  the  Archibishop— Unpublished  market-charter  for  Otley — Local 
errors — Ancient  laws  of  sale  and  barter— Markets  held  in  the  nave  of  the  church — 
A  picturesque  Otley  fair-day — The  monks  of  Bolton,  Arthington,  &c.,  attend  the 
fairs— The  Archibishop's  manor-hall  and  court  at  Otley —Ancient  burgage  tenure — 
How  Otley  was  anciently  represented  in  Parliament — Local  monastic  possessions  - 
Foundation  of  a  leper's  hospital  at  Otley — The  building  of  Otley  bridge — Otley  in 
the  141)1  century — Abbot  of  Selby  at  Otley  and  local  inns — The  "Shepherd"  Lord 
Clifford  at  Otley  after  the  battle  of  Flodden— A  i6th  century  Otley  muster-roll — 
Otley  during  the  Civil  War — Menston  Old  Hall — Local  events,  Extracts  from  the 
Registers— The  ryth  century  hearth-tax— Otley  and  the  1715  and  1745  rebellions. 

]HE  twenty -fourth  Archbishop  of  York  was  Aldred 
(1061-69),  who  was  the  ninth  lord  of  Otley  from^he 
creation  of  the  Liberty  by  Athelstan.  He  it  was  who 
crowned  the  Conqueror  at  Westminster  Jn_  1066^.  and 
when  the  new  feudal  survey  was  made  some  twenty 
years  later,  Archbishop  Thomas,  formerly  canon  of  Bayeux,  was  lord 
of  the  manor.  This  is  how  it  is  described  before  A.D.  1086,  when  the 
facts  were  first  collected  : 

In  Othelai  (Otley)  with  these  berewicks,  Stube  (Stubham)  Middletune  (Middleton) 
Dentune  (Denton)  Cliftun  (Clifton)  Bichertun  (see  page  40)  Fernelai  (FarnleyJ  Timbe* 
(Little  Timblc)  Kctoiie  (Weston)  Pouele  (Poole)  Gisele  (GuisHey)  Henochesuuorde 
(Hawksworth)  another  Henochesuuorde  (Upper  Esholt  or  Hawksworth  Mill)  Beldoiu- 
(Baildon)  Mersintone  (Menston)  Burghelai  (Burley)  Ilecliue  (Ilkley). 

*  A  name  that  has  puzzled  many  writers.  Thoresby  suggests  Temple,  from  the 
Knight's  Templars  (but  the  Order  was  not  then  established),  though  I  think  there  can 
be  little  doubt  it  comes  from  the  A.-S.  Timber,  the  first  buildings  being  probably  of 
wood,  yet  in  Domesday  as  well  as  in  the  Great  Roll  of  the  Exchequer  for  i  ith  Henry  II. 
(1164),  an  interesting  reference  by  the  way,  which  Mr.  Grainge'in  his  Histoty  of 
Timble  has  overlooked,  great  Timble  is  spelled  with  the  final  I,  which  suggests  the 
A.-S.  temple,  a  temple  of  idols,  an  enclosure  sacred  to  the  gods.  The  famous 
Almes  Cliff,  a  heathen  temple,  is  not  far  away,  and  according  to  Shaw's  Celtic 
Dictionary,  this  name  is  derived  from  al,  a  cliff,  and  mias,  an  altar. 


39 

In  all,  there  an-  sixty  carucates  and  six  bovatcs  lor  geld,  in  which  ihcrc  may  he 
thirty-live  ploughs.  Archbishop  Kldred  had  this  I'm-  OIK-  manor-.  Now  Archbishop 
Thomas  has  in  the  demesne  two  ploughs  and  MX  villanes,  and  ten  bordars  having  live 
ploughs;  and  there  are  live  soUemen  having  lour  villanes  and  nine  bordars  with  live 
ploughs.  A  church  and  a  priest  with  one  villane  and  one  plough.  l-'our  acn •>  ot 
meadow.  \V(io(l  pasture,  two  letiga-  anil  three  quaranteens  in  length  and  as  much  in 
breadth.  I'nderwood,  nine  leuga>  in  length  and  as  much  in  breadth.  Arable  land, 
two  leut^.i-  in  length  and  two  in  breadth.  Moor,  two  U-ug;i>  in  length  and  one  in 
breadth  ;  the  greatest  part  of  this  manor  is  waste.  Value  in  King  Kdward's  time  ten 
pounds  ;  now  three  pounds. 

In  the  Recapitulation  of  the  same  Norman  inquest,  or  re-adjustment 
of  particulars  collected  before  1086,  a  very  difficult  task  which  must 
have  taken  a  considerable  time  to  complete,  we  find  : 

Item,  in  Gcrcbnrg  Wapenf.  There  are  these  berewicks  in  Otelai  (Otley)  Stube 
(Stubham)  Fernelie  (Farnley)  Mideltun  (Middleton)  Timbe  (Little  Timble)  Dentun 
(Denton)  Estonc  (part  ot  Weston)  C'liltun  (Clifton)  Bichertun  (see  page  40).  Among 
the  whole  twenty  earucates.  The  Archbishop  has  these. 

The  manor  of  Otley  therefore  included  at  the  time  of  the  Norman 
Conquest  all  the  places  and  territory  on  the  south  side  of  Wharfe,  in 
Skyrack  wapentake,  from  Pool  on  the  east  to  a  part  of  Ilkley  on  the 
west,  and  from  the  boundaries  of  the  parishes  of  Bradford  and  Bingley 
on  the  south  (including  Guiseley,  Hawksworth,  and  Baildon),  while  on 
the  north  side  of  Wharfe,  now  in  the  division  of  Claro,  but  described 
in  the  Recapitulation  as  within  the  now  extinct  wapentake  of  Gereburg, 
it  extended  from  Farnley  eastwards  to  Middleton  westwards,  excluding 
Askwith  and  part  of  Weston,  and  northwards  to  Little  Timble  and  the 
bounds  of  the  Honor  and  Forest  of  Knaresbro'.  As  little  alteration, 
if  any,  has  taken  place  in  the  township  boundaries,  it  will  be  useful  to 
tabulate  the  places  within  the  old  Domesday  parish  of  Otley,  with  their 
respective  areas  in  acres,  as  follows : 

Otley  2233  Menston  1076 

Farnley  1844  Pool  885 

Lindley  r499  Guiseley*  T525 

Newhall  with  Baildon  2606 

Clifton  1478  Weston  (part  of) 

Little  Timble  420  Middleton  ^763 

Denton  310°  Ilkley  (part  of) 

Burley  3T33  Bickerton  (unknown    - 

Esholt  (part  of)  —  Hawksworth  2462 

There  is  thus  a  known  area  of  25,024  acres,  and  an  indefinite  area 

*  Horsforth,  Rawdon,  Carlton,  and  Yeadon,  within  the  old  parish  of  Guiseley,  are 
separately  surveyed. 


40 

in  Esholt,  Weston,  and  Ilkley,  while  the  hamlet  or  village  of  Bickerton, 
apparently  destroyed  or  lost  at  some  subsequent  period,  cannot  be 
identified.!  The  probability  is  the  total  area  of  the  Saxon  manor 
would  not  fall  far  short  of  30,000  acres,  or  roughly  forty-seven  square 
miles,  a  very  large  portion  of  which,  as  stated  in  the  Norman  survey, 
was  then  waste ;  most  of  the  people  having  died  or  fled,  and  very  few 
were  left  to  till  the  land.  But  in  the  Saxon  era  it  must  have  been  in  a 
high  state  of  cultivation,  and  judging  by  the  number  of  carucates  and 
ploughs,  the  bulk  of  the  manor  was  worked  on  the  ancient  three-field 
system,  with  a  three-year  rotation  of  crops,  and  contained  an  annual 
workable  area  of  not  less  than  7,000  acres.  Afterwards  as  tillage 
improved,  the  system  of  two  crops  and  a  fallow  prevailed  in  this 
district,  though  the  proportion  of  grass  and  arable  has  fluctuated  to 
some  extent  in  late  times.  In  1797  for  example,  in  a  computed  area 
of  2,291  acres  within  the  township  of  Otley,  there  were  2,045  acr^s  in 
grass,  and  246  acres  arable,  the  latter  included  34  of  wheat,  122  oats, 
13  barley,  9  beans,  while  68  acres  were  fallow.  At  Farnley  consider- 
ably more  than  half  the  township  was  arable  land.  There  was  also  a 
common  of  nearly  500  acres  held  by  Mr.  Fawkes,  which  was  gradually 
being  improved  by  him  by  partial  enclosures  and  ploughing. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  there  was  a  church  and  endowed  priest  at 
Otley,  he  being  taxed  for  the  proportion  of  land  specially  allotted  for 
his  subsistence;  there  were  also  churches  at  Ilkley  (a  parish  that  now 
embraces  Middleton  on  the  opposite  side  of  Wharfe)  and  Weston,  but 
not  within  the  Archbishop's  jurisdiction.  Guiseley,  which  was  then 
within  the  manor  of  Otley,  was  a  mere  cluster  of  timber  and  thatched 
dwellings  (ancient  timber  being  still  in  evidence  in  the  interior 
construction  of  the  Parish  Church),  and  its  parish  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  formed,  nor  its  Church  built,  until  after  the  Norman  settle- 
ment, probably  through  the  munificence  of  the  Wards.  Perhaps  like 
other  outlying  places  in  the  parish,  too  inconveniently  remote  from  the 
mother  Church,  it  had  a  small  chapel-of-ease,  or  originally  even  only  a 
stone  cross,  erected  in  accordance  with  the  practice  of  the  times,  visited 
by  the  Otley  priest,  where  he  "  preached  and  celebrated."  But  as 
several  churches  in  this  neighbourhood  are  mentioned  in  the  Domesday 
testimony,  no  reference  is  made  to  a  church  at  Guiseley  which  induces 
the  belief  that  there  was  nothing  but  a  preaching-cross  here  until  the 
formation  of  the  parish  in  the  middle  of  the  i2th  century.  Also  the 
state  of  the  country  at  this  time,  with  its  comparatively  sparse 

f  In  1247  Archbishop  Gray  instituted  Th.  de  Cantilup,  clerk  to  the  church  at 
Bychton,  at  the  presentation  of  Dame  Agatha  Trussebut.  There  is  a  Bickerton  in 
Bilton  parish,  3^  miles  east  of  Wetherby. 


o 

I 
c 

33 
O 

I 


population,  persuades  me  that  it  allowed  only  for  the  maintenance  of  a 
single  priest.* 

The  parish  of  Otley  was  not  formed,  as  at  Ilkley,  out  of  the 
territorium  of  the  Romans,  for  as  Professor  Freeman  points  out  the 
Anglo-Saxons  on  their  conquest  of  Britain  did  not  as  a  rule  at  once 
occupy  a  Roman  or  British  town,  but  preferred  a  settlement  of  their 
own  especially  where  the  land  lent  itself  to  convenient  cultivation. 
There  is  consequently  little  doubt  that  Otley  was  colonised  by  the 
Kn^lish  much  earlier  than  Ilkley,  though  with  regard  to  this  ascription, 
the  A..-S.  ftvast-scyre,  priest's  share,  or  parish,  was  based  on  a  pre-existing 
township  that  recognised,  as  we  often  find,  old  British  boundaries  or 
tribal  claims,  at  any  rate  in  the  direction  of  Ilkley,  where  the  population 
was  largely  Celtic  and  in  the  exercise  of  its  ancient  customs.! 

Baildon  it  should  be  observed  was  entered  in  the  Survey  as  in  two 
holdings  (perhaps  High  and  Low  Baildon),  one  of  which  was  within 
De  Burun's  soke  of  Bingley,  and  the  other  a  berewick  within  the 
Archbishop's  manor  of  Otley ;  the  first  soon  lost  and  perhaps  explained 
by  De  Burun's  forfeiture  of  the  lordship  of  Bingley  before  the  comple- 
tion of  the  survey,}  though  the  whole  of  Baildon  was  not  acquired  by 

*  The  stone  cross,  dedicated  at  Guiseley  to  the  memory  of  St.  Oswald  (though 
made  probably  two  centuries  later),  often  led  to  the  erection  of  a  church  on  the  site 
dedicated  to  the  same  Saint.  The  Standard  of  St.  Oswald  (which  was  in  existence 
in  Bedt-'s  time)  was  a  cross  of  wood,  and  was  borne  before  him  in  his  marches 
against  the  pagans,  and  which  he  planted  with  his  own  hands  before  the  battle 
began.  (See  p.  32.)  The  Guiseley  cross  bears  an  interlaced  cord  pattern  on  the 
shaft  and  on  the  head  is  the  device  of  a  twisted  dragon,  in  allusion  probably  to  the 
Apochryphal  Gospel  of  the  Nativity, — "Beasts  and  dragons  knew  the  Saviour  of  the 
world  in  the  desert,  and  came  and  worshipped  Him."  The  Church  is  an  interesting 
epitome  of  the  several  early  styles  of  ecclesiastical  architecture,  mingled  with  some 
execrable  modern  incongruities.  The  south  entrance  and  piers  of  the  nave  are  late 
Norman.  There  is  an  Early  English  chancel,  with  a  curious  low-side  window  in  the 
north  wall,  which  has  been  continued  through  to  the  outside,  where  until  lately,  was  a 
recessed  kneeling-stone,  much  worn,  commanding  a  view  of  the  altar.  Inside  the 
aperture  has  been  closed  with  a  shutter.  The  south  transept  has  been  a  chantry-chapel 
dedicated  to  Our  Lady,  and  contains  some  interesting  131)1  century  half-timber  work 
on  the  north  side.  It  has  three  Early  English  lancets  in  the  east  wall,  and  a  Decorated 
piscina  and  window  in  the  south  wall.  The  tower  is  somewhat  later.  In  the  church- 
yard is  an  excellent  example  of  an  Early  English  tomb-slab  having  characteristic 
dog-tooth  ornament  (ca  1220)  which  ought  to  be  placed  inside  the  Church. 

|  S<-t-  the  introduction  to  the  Census  Report  (1851)  on  the  "Ancient  Kingdoms  and 
Provinces  of  England  and  Wales,  and  Scotland;"  also  D.  H.  Haigh's  "Anglo-Saxon 
Conquest"  wherein  he  connects  the  A.-S.  Octarchy  with  the  Roman  Province  of  Great 
Britain. 

J  A  communion  of  feeling  probably  subsisted  between  the  Domesday  lords  of 
Bingley  and  Otley,  for  Archbishop  Thomas,  the  first  Norman  lord  of  Otley,  came  from 
the  Cathedral  of  Bayeux,  which  belonged  the  honor  of  Evrecy,  near  Caen,  in  which 
province  is  situated  the  vil  of  Burun  that  gave  name  to  the  subsequent  lord  of  Bingley 
and  was  the  prim  urn  stamen  of  the  noble  house  of  Byron. 


42 

the  Archbishops  till  about  A.D.  1220.*  Bramhope  on  the  other  hand, 
which  was  merged  in  the  parish  of  Otley,  appears  in  the  Domesday 
record  as  the  property  of  the  Norman  Giselbert  Tyson,  who  permitted 
Ulchil  the  former  owner  to  continue  as  his  tenant.  Bramhope  however 
never  came  within  the  Archbishops'  jurisdiction,  which  embraced  all  the 
townships  of  the  manor  including  Guiseley. 

There  was  a  tract  cut  off  from  Otley  and  the  wapentake  of  Skyrack 
by  the  Wharfe  that  is  mentioned  only  in  the  Recapitulation,  above 
cited,  as  parcel  of  the  manor  belonging  to  the  Archbishops  included  in 
the  wapentake  of  Gereburg.  This  name  and  jurisdiction  are  now  lost 
(being  merged  in  Claro),  but  it  must  have  included  an  area  of  little  less 
than  twenty  square  miles.  Doubtless  this  particular  territory  main- 
tained a  number  of  families  recognizing  a  common  kinship,  a  gemana, 
bound  to  each  other  by  ties  of  law  and  inheritance.  As  most  of  the 
hundreds  and  wapentakes  were  not  named  after  their  townships  but  for 
other  valid  reasons,  such  as  from  some  properly  authorised  spot  or  place 
of  meeting,  as  in  Osgoldcross,  Buckcross,  Skyrack,  Tickhill  and  Claro, 
it  may  be  well  to  consider  how  far  such  names  illustrate  political  unity 
within  their  particular  jurisdictions.  For  the  present,  dealing  with  a 
definite  area  as  the  manor  of  Otley  is  revealed  to  us — yet  the  Norman 
"manor"  by  the  way  is  but  a  legal  fiction  based  on  a  divisional  system 
going  back  to  the  oldest  proprietary  interest  in  land, — I  will  confine 
myself  to  the  district  of  Claro  and  its  banished  member,  Gereburg,  in 
which  that  portion  of  the  manor  of  Otley  lying  on  the  north  side  of  the 
Wharfe  was  situated.  It  must  be  remembered  that  over  and  above  the 
agricultural  rights  of  the  primitive  village  assembly  all  interest  in  local 
government  was  centred  in  the  hundred  or  wapentake  courts  as  we  find 
the  same  term  expressed  in  those  of  the  northern  counties  principally 
settled  by  the  Norse.  Dr.  Wilkins,  in  his  Glossary  upon  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  laws  derives  "  wagentake  "  from  weapan  arma  and  teacan  docere, 
as  the  district  where  a  given  number  of  persons  in  each  county  were 
accustomed  to  meet  and  train  themselves  in  the  use  of  arms.f  There 
can  however  be  little  doubt  that  these  judicial  areas  arose  from  a  given 
number  of  families  uniting  themselves  in  one  common  interest  for  the 
maintenance  of  life  and  property,  of  law  and  discipline.  Doubtless 
the  motive,  as  we  gather  from  Tacitus,  was  originally  military  as  well 
as  civil.  In  course  of  time  these  self-constituted  village  tribunes  were 

*  Mr.  W.  Paley  Baildon,  F.S.A.,  informs  me  that  the  two  moities  of  Baildon  were 
owned  by  the  De  Lelays,  or  Leathleys,  in  the  i2th  century,  both  of  which  they 
conveyed  at  separate  times  to  the  See  of  York,  the  last,  as  stated  above,  about  1220. 
The  two  charters  are  in  the  Cotton  MSS. 

f  Wilkin's  Leg.  Ang.-Sax.,  p.  117. 


43 

gradually  encroached  upon  by  the  lords  or  heads  of  clans  arrogating  to 
themselves  many  of  the  duties  and  much  of  the  prerogative  belonging 
to  them,  which  [in-pared  the  \vay  for  the  Norman  system  of  tenure  in 
capHe.  By  thr  time  of  Athelstan  every  man  under  a  federation  was 
bound  to  find  a  lord.  It  is  thus  we  hear  of  the  hall  of  the  chief  and  the 
seat  cf  justice,  or  capital  station  of  the  manor  or  hundred.  In  the 
name  Claro,  anciently  Clare-how,  I  have  no  doubt  there  lurks  such  a 
meaning,  for  clere  (pron.  dare)  is  an  Anglo-Norman  word  signifying  a 
myal  or  episcopal  seat,  or  chief  place  of  judicature,*  and  it  is  very 
likely  that  customary  meetings  continued  to  be  held  here  as  late  as  the 
reign  of  Henry  I  (1100-35),  as  that  monarch  in  order  to  oppose  his 
Norman  barons  and  curry  favor  with  the  populace,  restored  these  old 
English  courts.  They  were  in  fact  the  Curia  Regts,  the  court  of  the 
King's  vassals,  which  grew  out  of  the  Saxon  Witenagemote,  and 
attended  at  first  by  all  the  King's  tenants  in  capite,  and  afterwards  by 
the  superior  lords  only,  ultimately  led  to  the  principle  of  hereditary 
legislation  in  the  House  of  Lords.  Yet  a  notable  exception  to  the 
principle  of  hereditary  right  is  afforded  by  the  fact  of  the  presence  of 
the  Bishops  in  the  House  of  Lords  from  the  earliest  times,  being  the 
actual  representatives  of  the  general  body  of  the  people,  as  prescribed 
by  the  laws  of  Edward  the  Confessor.  Therefore,  I  contend,  we  have 
in  the  how\  or  hill,  near  Allerton  Mauleverer — still  known  as  Claro 
Hill — not  a  mere  inert  antiquity,  but  a  place  whose  very  name  is  still 
voiceful  of  the  busy  past,  being  the  scene  of  the  Anglo  Saxon  gemot 
and  Norman  Curia  Regis,\  or  place  of  assembly  of  the  chief  lord  or 
governor  of  the  wapentake. 

Gereburg  seems  to  have  a  similar  meaning,  being  the  burg,  or  hill 
where  the  decrees  passed  by  the  wapentake  Court  of  Claro  were 
proclaimed  annually,  just  as  they  are  now  by  the  Isle  of  Man  House  of 
Keys  on  the  Tynwald  Hill  every  5th  of  July.§ 

The  word  gear  is  simply  A.-S.  for  year,  and  gearlic  is  yearly, 
though  with  regard  to  the  term  burg  in  a  judicial  sense,  it  is  possible 
that  Savigny  is  right  when  he  states  that  among  the  Franks  and 
Lombards  there  were  monthly  courts  attended  by  all  the  freemen  who 
collectively  are  styled  a  rachimburgi,  which  he  derives  from  rek,  rich  or 

*   Vide  Blackie's  Place  Names,  page  50. 

I    Like  Cleofesho  in  Berkshire,  a  place  celebrated  in  Anglo-Saxon  Councils. 

J  The  leet  is  accounted  the  King's  Court.  Vide  Scriven  on  Copyholds,  Ft.  iii, 
c.  xxii. 

§  I  find  in  the  Pipe  Rolls  for  Lincolnshire,  8th  Henry  II.  (1161)  that  there  was  a 
wapentake  of  Gereburg  in  that  county  then  responsible  for  levies  to  the  King's 
Exchequer, 


44 

great,  and  burg,  surety.*  These  regular  periodical  meetings  of  the 
Continental  rachimburgi,  observes  Mr.  Gomme,  have  their  parallels  in 
England  in  the  great  court,  or  sheriff  s-tourn,  or  leet,  as  it  was  after- 
wards called,  held  twice  a  year,  and  the  curia  parva  Hundredi,  held 
every  three  weeks,  which  though  appearing  now  to  be  so  distinct  from 
each  other,  belonged  originally  to  the  old  hundred  assembly,  the  one 
representing  the  civil,  the  other  the  criminal  jurisdiction  of  the  hundred- 
moot.!  A  local  illustration  of  this  is  found  in  the  ancient  court  leet  or 
sheriff-tourn  for  the  royal  Forest  of  Knaresboro',  within  Claro  which 
used  regularly  to  be  held  at  the  Castle  twice  yearly,  at  Easter  and 
Michaelmas.  The  constables  then  attended  to  be  sworn  into  office, 
eleven  for  the  Forest  and  nine  for  the  Liberty,  each  of  these 
accompanied  by  four  men  out  of  whom  the  juries  were  empanelled. 
In  the  light  of  this  present-century  custom  we  can  clearly  discern  the 
old  ante-Norman  claim  of  the  people  to  be  entrusted  in  the 
administration  of  its  local  councils,  thus  directly  or  indirectly  making 
all  men  party  to  the  government  of  the  State. 

One  important  privilege  which  the  old  lords  of  Otley  exercised 
was  that  of  judging  and  executing  thieves  taken  within  their  several 
liberties.  Consequently  we  find  they  had  their  own  gallows  at  Otley, 
Beverley,  and  Ripon,  and  the  site  of  the  Otley  gallows  is  still  known 
and  retained  in  the  name  of  Gallows  Hill,  below  the  cemetery  on  the 
road  to  Pool.  When  the  last  execution  took  place  here  I  have  no 
knowledge,  but  at  Richmond,  in  the  North  Riding,  the  right  was 
exercised  even  to  the  time  of  the  final  abolition  of  feudal  tenures,  i2th 
Charles  II.  The  gallows  stood  at  the  east  end  of  the  Gallows  field 
near  an  old  quarry,  and  the  last  person  hanged  there,  according  to  the 
old  parish  registers,  was  John  Conyers,  bellman,  izth  Jan,  1613-14. 
Part  of  the  old  gallows-tree  was  standing  as  late  as  17244  Among  the 
Pleas  of  the  Crown,  52iid  Henry  III.  (1267),  there  is  an  indictment 
presented  by  the  inhabitants  of  Pool,  Otley,  Bramhope,  and  Arthington, 
to  the  effect  that  one  Ralph  Brun  had  committed  many  robberies  and 

*  See  also  Stubbs'  Const.  Hist.,  vol.  i,  p.  54. 

f  Gomme's  Local  Institutions,  p.  54 ;  see  also  Thoresb)'  Soc.  Pub.,  vol.  ii,  p.  129, 
where  Sir  Symon  le  Ward,  Kt.,  is  stated  to  owe  suit(A.D.  1306)  to  the  Archbishop's 
Court  at  Otley  from  three  weeks  to  three  weeks.  Other  local  instances  occur. 

J  An  old  York  gallows  stood  near  the  "Black  Horse"  public  house,  on  the  south 
side  of  the  road  leading  from  York  to  Kexby.  Yorks.  Archl.Jl.,  xiv.,  450.  A  "Gallow 
Hill  Close"  is  mentioned  in  the  Leeds  manor  rolls  (1650),  vide  Thoresby  Soc.  Pub.,  ix.,  64. 
The  city  of  Bradford  had  also  anciently  its  gallows,  which  stood  near  the  site  of  the 
present  Bowling  Ironworks,  and  is  described  in  the  local  manor  rolls  as  Gallows  Close. 
Knaresbro'  had  likewise  it's  public  gallows  in  use  to  a  late  period.  As  civil  liberty 
extended  these  local  executions  generally  lapsed,  and  not  by  the  express  statute 
mentioned  above. 


45 

Ili-cl.  But  he  was  afterwards  apprehended  and  executed  by  the  said 
townships  at  the  Otley  gallows,  and  his  land,  said  to  be  worth  245.  4d. 
and  chattels,  worth  14*.,  were  forfeited.*  Again,  in  J45g,  one  Thomas 
Tesdaile,  of  Otley,  was  apprehended  for  stealing  goods  value  js.  gd., 
belonging  to  the  Prioress  of  Esholt,  and  was  sentenced  to  be  hanged, 
in  all  likelihood  at  Otley. t  By  the  laws  of  Athelstan  (vi.,  c.  i.,  s.  i.) 
the  goods  of  the  culprit  were  to  be  divided,  one  half  to  the  wife  (if  she 
be  guiltless  of  connivance),  the  other  to  be  again  divided,  half  to  the 
King  and  half  to  the  township  (geferscipe),  while  izd.  went  to  the  man 
who  first  felled  the  thief.  Although  the  prerogative  of  a  gallows  at 
Otley  is  not  traceable  beyond  the  grant  of  Athelstan,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  it  was  the  transfer  of  a  pre-existing  custom.  The  unsettled 
Britons  were  notorious  pilferers,  and  their  raidings  obliged  some 
stringent  method  of  repression.  Doubtless,  also,  for  the  good  behaviour 
of  their  own  people,  the  Anglo-Saxons  embraced  and  applied  the 
same  in  the  law  of  their  own  townships.  This  law  was  continued, 
and  was  not,  as  some  have  imagined,  introduced  by  enactment  at  the 
Norman  settlement.  From  the  Saxon  Chronicle  we  gather  clearly  that 
the  Conqueror  did  not  .subvert  the  old  customs  of  the  country,  and  on  a 
comparison  with  his  laws  and  those  of  his  predecessors,  notably  of  Ina, 
Alfred,  and  Athelstan,  we  shall  find  that  he  retained  a  great  deal  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  prerogative.  This  included  infangtheof  (from  A.-S.fa/ig 
or  fang-en,  to  catch,  and  theofr  a  thief),  or  the  right  to  execute  felons 
apprehended  within  particular  jurisdictions,  and  this  prerogative  the 
Norman  lords  of  manors  claimed,  not  as  a  new  creation,  but  by  virtue 
of  ancient  law-right.  The  feudal  system  was,  of  course,  no  new  thing 
in  the  Conqueror's  time,  but  had  its  original  from  the  military  policy  of 
the  ancient  Celtic  nations. 

These  transmitted  privileges,  as  affecting  the  liberty  of  Cawood, 
Wistow,  and  Otley,  were  formally  contested  by  Edward  I.,  almost 
immediately  on  the  elevation  of  William  VVickwane  to  the  Archbishopric 
in  1279.  It  appears  that  during  the  King's  absence  in  the  Holy  Land 
there  had  been  much  improper  alienation  and  appropriation  of  State 
tribute  and  various  unwarranted  exactions  levied  on  the  people  on  the 
pretext  of  manorial  title,  to  the  serious  diminution  of  the.  Crown 
revenues.  Commissions  were  appointed  in  every  hundred  of  the 
kingdom  to  inquire  into  these  abuses,  and  thus  a  Quo  Warmnto  was 
brought  against  William,  Archbishop  of  York,  demanding  to  know 
by  what  warrant  he  claimed  to  have  gallows,  returns  of  writs,  estreats, 
&c.,  within  the  city  of  York  and  without.  To  have  a  park  and  free 

*  Tower  Assize  Roll,  No.  37,  quoted  in  the  Yorks.  Co.  Mag.  (1891),  p.  86. 
t  Yorks.  Rec.  Ser.,  xvii.,  58. 


46 

warren,  and  to  have  his  lands  quit  from  suit  at  "  Beverley,  Burton, 
Wilton,  Ripon,  Otley,  Schireburn,  and  Thorp,"  and  to  have  a  park  and 
free  warren  at  Cawood.  To  which  the  Archbishop  made  sure  answer 
that  as  to  the  gallows  he  claimed  them,  without  York,  "  in  his  baronies 
of  Schireburn,  Wilton,  Patrington,  Otley,  Beverley,  and  Ripon,"  by  this 
warrant  that  King  Athelstan  gave  the  said  manors  to  the  Archbishop 
of  York  and  his  successors  before  the  Conquest,  from  which  time  all  the 
Archbishops  of  York  have  enjoyed  the  said  liberties.  That  afterwards, 
King  Henry  I.,  son  of  the  Conqueror,  did,  amongst  divers  other 
liberties,  grant  to  the  Archbishop  infangtheof  in  the  aforesaid  lands  by 
_his_charter,  which  he  produced  in  court.  This  settled  the  matter,  and 
the  Archbishops  continued  to  exercise  their  hereditary  rights. 

The  returns  of  Kirkby's  Inquest  (1284-5)  shew  that  the  Archbishop 
of  York  answered  in  Otley  for  half  a  Knight's  Fee,  the  annual  value  of 
the  Knight's  Fee  having  been  originally  fixed  at  ^20,  probably  about 
A.D.  noo.  With  Otley  he  held  of  the  King  in  capite  Guiseley,  Burley, 
Menston,  Hawksworth,  Baildon,  and  Pool,  as  well  as  the  barony  of 
Sherburn.  In  1290  the  Archbishop  contributed  205.  from  his  manor  of 
Otley,  being  at  the  rate  of  405.  granted  from  each  Knight's  Fee  in  the 
kingdom,  in  aid  of  the  marriage  of  the  King's  eldest  daughter.  These 
"  aids,''  says  Blackstone,  were  originally  mere  benevolences,  granted  by 
the  tenant  to  his  lord  in  times  of  difficulty  and  distress,  but  in  process 
of  time  they  grew  to  be  considered  as  a  matter  of  right  and  not  of 
discretion.  In  1315  the  Archbishop,  William  de  Grenefeld,  is  returned 
as  lord  of  the  manor  of  Otley.  The  revenues  of  the  manor,  as  furnished 
by  a  rent-roll,  36th  Henry  VIII.  (1544),  quoted  by  Drake,*  then 
amounted  to  ^£32  175.  i  id.,  or  about  £$oo  of  present  money.  Cawood 
yielded  a  revenue  of  ^70  135.  4d.,  and  Ripon,  then  the  most  valuable 
appurtenance  of  the  See  of  York,  was  worth  ,£143  45.  8d. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  in  the  Quo  Warranto  of  Edward  I.  no 
allusion  is  made  to  the  proprietary  claim  of  the  Archbishop  to  the  tolls 
of  the  ancient  markets  at  Otley.  This  was  for  the  reason  that  the  King 
only  questioned  those  rights  which  could  in  any  way  infringe  on  the 
imperial  interest.  Though  it  did  happen  in  one  recorded  instance, 
viz.  A.D.  1439,  when  the  Archbishop's  steward  levied  tolls  on  some 
Knaresboro'  Foresters  who  claimed  exemption,  by  virtue  of  ancient 
grant,  to  stand  toll-free  in  any  market-place  in  the  kingdom,  that  the 
said  tolls  had  been  unjustly  demanded  and  taken  to  the  injury  of  the 
men  of  the  Forest.  There  was  no  justification  in  the  Archbishop's 
claim  by  reason  of  any  prior  privilege  as  the  Foresters  well  knew. 
That  a  weekly  market  was  instituted  by  the  grant  of  Athelstan,  ca  940, 

*  Eboracum,  pages  545-7. 


47 

is  very  probable,  but  that  "  market  and  fairs  in  Otley  have  existed  by 
ancient  charter  for  more  than  fifteen  hundred  years,"  as  asserted  by 
Dr.  Shaw*  is  a  stretch  of  local  patriotism  which  may  be  excused 
though  not  for  a  moment  entertained.  That  would  carry  us  back  to  the 
days  of  the  ancient  Britons,  when  many  were  living  in  the  Stone  Age 
and  such  a  thing  as  a  charter  was  totally  undreamed  of.  Even  during 
the  Anglian  occupation  of  Wharfedale  there  is  no  doubt  that  with  the 
exception  of  particular  grants  and  charters  from  the  State,  the  succession 
to  property  and  all  important  transfers  and  exchanges  were  ratified 
simply  by  the  presence  of  persons  outside  the  parties  to  the  transaction, 
for  the  laws  of  Ina  in  dealing  with  sale  and  barter  distinctly  inform  us 
that  all  purchases  of  any  value  were  to  be  made  before  witnesses.  No 
one  could  write  then,  or  indeed  very  few.f  In  the  time  of  Athelstan 
it  was  moreover  not  allowed  to  make  any  purchase  of  over  twenty 
pence  value  extra  portam,  and  the  purchase  had  to  be  ratified  before 
the  portreeve  or  the  reeves  in  the  folk-moot.  The  State  whilst  always 
encouraging  every  form  of  legitimate  trade  has  jealously  guarded 
against  any  abuse  of  it,  and  has  always  claimed  and  exercised  the 
right  to  establish  fairs  and  markets.  There  do  not  appear,  however, 
any  records  of  letters  patent  granted  before  the  reign  of  John.  The 
earliest  mention  which  I  can  find  of  such  a  grant  to  Otley  is  of  the 
time  of  Henry  III.,  when  in  1222,  a  two  days'  fair  was  licensed  to  be 
established  in  the  town.  The  following  is  the  transcript,  now  for  the 
first  time  published. 

MARKETS  AND   FAIR   AT  SHERBURN,    PATRINGTON,   AND   OTLEY 

(1222). 

The  Lord  King  hath  granted  to  W.,  Archbishop  of  York,  that  he  may  have,  until 
his  coming  of  age,  a  market  every  week,  on  Wednesday,  at  his  Manor  of  Sherburn, 
and  that  he  may  have,  until  his  coming  of  age,  a  market  every  week,  on  Thursday,  at 
his  Manor  of  Patrington,  and  that  he  may  until  his  coming  of  age  of  the  lord  King,  a 
fair  every  year  at  Otley,  lasting  for  two  days  to  wit,  on  the  vigil  of  St.  Mary  Magdalen, 
and  on  the  day  itself  unless  aforesaid  markets  and  fair  be  to  the  injury  of  neighbouring 
markets,  and  it  is  commanded  the  Sheriff  of  Yorks.  that  he  cause  him  to  have  aforesaid 
markets  and  fair  as  aforesaid.  Witness,  H.  &c.,  at  Nottingham,  the  first  day  of  March, 
by  the  same.J 

The  markets  would  be  originally  held  in  the  churchyard  (often  in 
winter  they  were  held  in  the  nave  of  the  church),  and  most  likely  on  the 

*  Wharfedale  (1830),  page  118. 

t  Even  at  the  present  time  this  primitive  system  of  transfer  prevails  to  some  extent 
in  the  Orkney  and  Shetland  Islands  :  the  right  to  property  not  being  retained  by 
deed  or  written  agreement,  but  simply  by  undisturbed  possession  proved  by  witnc-.-t.-. 
before  an  inquest. 

J  See  also  Rot.  Chart.,  zy:A  Henry  III.  (1248)  for  the  Charter  of  grant  of  a  yearly 
fair  on  St.  Mary  Magdalen's  Day,  and  weekly  (Monday)  market  at  Otlt-y,  Hexham,  and 
other  places  to  Archbishop  Gray.  Stotees  Soc.  Pub.,  vol.  Ivi.,  p.  283.  See  also  the 
author's  Nidderdale,  page  446. 


Sabbath,  no  matter  what  the  chartered  day,  so  that  buyers  and  sellers 
coming  from  the  outskirts  of  the  parish,  or  from  long  distances,  might 
do  their  business,  and  attend  divine  service  on  the  same  day.*  Public 
proclamations  were  also  made  on  the  same  occasions.!  The  markets 
and  fairs  were  attended  by  all  classes  of  society  from  the  noble  to  the 
serf,  and  now  and  then  no  doubt  one  might  have  seen  the  lord  of  the 
manor,  the  Primate  himself,  accompanied  by  his  steward,  mingling  with 
the  motley  group.  Strolling  about  the  booths  and  stalls  on  these  ancient 
fair  days  appeared  perchance  an  odd  Crusader,  or  disabled  hero  with 
the  war-tan  fresh  upon  his  cheek,  along  with  mounted  knights  and 
ladies,  shaveling  soldiers,  privileged  beggars  and  players,  and  miserable 
lepers,  crippled  and  sore,  with  their  clap-dishes  begging  corn.  There 
were  also  monks  and  laymen  from  the  neighbouring  monasteries ; 
the  monks  of  Bolton  and  Arthington  and  the  nuns  of  Esholt  (the  latter 
had  lands  at  Otley)  being  regular  visitors.  Cattle,  sheep,  and  goats 
were  exhibited  then  as  now,  though  goats  in  former  times  were  much 
more  in  request  than  they  are  now.  I  find  in  the  compotus  of  Bolton 
Abbey  that  the  canons  came  to  Otley  fair  in  1290  and  spent  285.  8d.  in 
the  purchase  of  goats,  worth  at  that  time  from  i5d.  to  i8d.  each,  while 
a  good  milch-cow  fetched  6s.  or  about  the  price  of  a  stone  of  wool. 
There  were  no  shops  (as  we  understand  the  term)  in  those  days,  and  at 
the  back  end  of  the  year  particularly,  the  markets  were  crowded  by 
many  who  had  travelled  from  a  distance  to  lay  in  their  winter  supplies.} 

The  Archiepiscopal  rule  ceased  in  1837,  wnen  the  Ecclesiastical 
Commissioners  took  over  the  duties,  exactly  900  years  from  the  grant 
of  Athelstan ;  the  Archbishops  having  enjoyed  the  fruits  of  the  above 
customary  gatherings  during  this  long  period,  and  for  a  great  part  of 
the  time  they  were  amongst  the  largest  and  best  of  their  kind  in  the 
kingdom.  The  Ecclesiastical  Commissioners  resigned  the  manorial 
rights  in  the  Market  Place  to  the  Otley  Local  Board  in  July,  1872. 

The  Archbishops,  as  I  have  said,  had  a  residence  at  Otley  where 
they  transacted  business  and  received  the  homage  of  their  suitors.  It 
has  been  variously  called  a.  palace  and  a  castle,  but  I  cannot  think  that 
it  was  ever  a  properly  fortified  manor-house  or  castle,  otherwise  we 

*  The  holding  ot  markets  in  churchyards  was  repressed  by  statute,  i^th  Edward  I., 
but  the  prohibition  seems  to  have  been  more  honored  in  the  breach  than  in  the 
observance. 

f  See  Beverlev  Minster  Chapter  Act  Book,  p.  5. 

J  In  a  comparison  of  the  value  of  the  honor  and  manor  of  Skipton-in-Craven  in 
1310  and  1612,  the  profits  of  the  weekly  market  and  two  fairs  in  the  year  there  amounted 
in  1310  to  ;£i6  133.  4d.,  and  in  1612  they  were  declared  not  to  yield  so  much.  There 
had  been  a  long-  course  of  prosperity  up  to  the  disaster  at  Bannockburn  in  1314  which 
"put  back  the  dial-hand  of  civilisation  fully  two  centuries." 


49 

sin  mid  find  it  mentioned  amongst  the  Crown  licenses  to  <  renellate 
wli'u  h  win  n.'irssary  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries,  when 
this  house  seems  to  have  been  most  frequently  occupied  in  honor  and 
state.  The  old  mode  of  defences  having  become  useless  by  the 
introduction  of  gunpowder,  we  find  that  in  the  fifteenth  century  the 
type  of  fortified  castle  gradually  died  out  and  the  domestic  mansion 
took  its  place.*  Some  alterations  appear  to  have  been  effected  about 
the  year  1415  when  the  great  kitchens  were  added  by  Archbishop 
Ilouet,  who  also  made  some  additions  to  the  houses  at  Ripon  and 
built  the  large  dining-hall  in  the  castle  at  Cawood.  This  prelate  was 
celebrated  for  his  lavish  hospitality,  and  was  frequently  in  residence  at 
one  or  other  of  his  palaces  where  he  maintained  a  numerous  retinue, 
anil  no  doubt  the  market-salesmen  at  Otley  always  rejoiced  at  his 
coming  hither.  He  is  recorded  to  have  consumed  four  score  tun  of 
claret  yearly,  besides  various  other  liquors  and  a  proportionate  quantity 
of  comestibles.  When  he  died  in  1423  he  left  by  will  ^100  (at  least 
;£i,ooo  of  present  money),  to  meet  the  expenses  of  the  great  feast  and 
pomp  of  his  funeral. f  His  successors  continued  to  occupy  the  old 
moated  mansion  at  Otley  occasionally,  to  the  time  of  Archbishop 
Hutton  (1544-1606)!  when  it  was  neglected  and  by  the  time  of 
the  Civil  War  it  was  a  complete  ruin.  Thoresby  in  his  Diary,  under 
date  1702,  says  "we  rode  by  Askwith  and  Newhall  over  the  bridge  to 
Otley,  where  the  first  thing  I  observed  was  the  ruins  of  the  Arch- 
bishop's palace  there."  The  foundations  remained  until  about  1780 
when  the  existing  Manor  House,  at  the  bottom  of  Kirkgate,  was  built 
on  the  site.§  It  is  the  residence  of  Thomas  Constable,  Esq.,  J.P., 
descended  from  the  Maxwells,  Earls  of  Nithsdale,  and  nephew  of  the 
"good  Mr.  Middleton,"  of  Middleton  Lodge,  whose  only  child,  Mary 
Constable,  married  Charles  Botolph,  Lord  Mowbray  and  Stourton,  ot 
Allerton  Mauleverer.  The  Archiepiscopal  Courts,  I  should  add,  were 
afterwards  held  at  one  of  the  inns  or  at  the  old  Free  School. 

The  inhabitants  of  Otley  anciently  held  their  tenements  by 
burgage-tenure^f,  and  temp.  Edward  I.  there  were  137  burgages  that 
paid  an  annual  rent  of  fivepence  each  to  the  Archbishop  by  way  of 
soccage.  These  burgage-houses  collectively  were  designated  a  borough 
and  their  occupants  were  named  burgesses,  a  term  afterwards  applied 

*  See  Parker's  Domestic  Architecture  in  England,  Part  i. 

f  See  Raine's  Historians  of  the  Church  of  York,  iii.,  322. 
%  See  Fairfax  Correspondence,  vol.  i.,  p.   162. 

§  Similarly  the  remains  of  the  old  palace  or  manor  hall  at  Ripon  were  removed  in 
1830  to  make  way  for  the  present  Court  Hou-c. 

*  .Set-  Blount's  Law  Dictionary, 


5° 

to  the  general  body  of  inhabitants.  Although  the  town  is  now  the 
capital  of  a  Parliamentary  division  it  had  never  a  municipal  government, 
nor  was  it  ever  actually  represented  in  Parliament  excepting  indirectly 
by  the  Archbishops.  In  1298  when  two  knights  of  the  shire  and  two 
discreet  and  able  citizens  were  summoned  to  meet  the  King  at  York, 
from  every  county  and  borough  in  England,  the  only  towns  in  Yorkshire 
directly  represented  at  this  great  national  assembly  were  York,  Beverley, 
Malton,  Northallerton,  and  Scarbro';  the  last  mentioned  place  having 
been  incorporated  by  charter  of  Henry  II.,  A.D.  n8r,  and  at  the 
Parliament  held  in  1282  was  the  only  borough  in  Yorkshire  summoned 
to  send  members.  Whilst  Otley  had  anciently  the  privilege  of  direct 
representation,  it  seems  always  to  have  claimed  exemption  by  reason 
of  its  affairs  being  controlled  by  the  metropolitan  and  consequent 
unnecessitated  liability  to  the  expense  attached  to  such  representation. 

In  a  place  so  long  and  completely  monopolized  by  the  Arch- 
bishops, it  would  be  interesting  to  discover  how  the  two  tofts  at  Otley 
came  into  the  possession  of  Fountains  Abbey.*  In  1371  the  Abbot 
had  to  maintain  his  right  by  claiming  against  Richard  Bonefaunt, 
chaplain,  and  William  de  Merton,  chaplain,  one  messuage  in  Otley,  in 
right  of  his  church.  Also  in  1372  the  Abbot  claimed  a  messuage  in  the 
town  against  John  Ryder,  chaplain.  Otley  had  early  given  name  to  an 
honorable  family,  which  I  find  first  mentioned  in  the  Pipe  Rolls  of  i2th 
Henry  II.  (1165);  and  one  Henricus  de  Ottley  was  Abbot  of  Fountains, 
who  on  his  death  in  1289!  was  interred  in  the  chapter-house  in 
accordance  with  the  early  Cistercian  rule.  Richard  de  Ottelay  was 
Vicar  of  Otley  in  1391.  A  Robert  de  Otley  was  also  Prior  of  Bolton 
in  1370,  and  Thomas  Otley  was  Prior  in  1495.  About  1 130  Archbishop 
Thurstan  gave  to  the  Nunnery  of  St.  Clement,  York,  which  he  had 
founded,  "one  acre  of  land  in  Otley,  with  the  tithe  of  a  certain  mill 
there. "\  This  is  an  early  reference  to  the  lord's  mill,  where  in  former 
times  it  was  compulsory  to  grind  all  corn  grown  or  consumed  within 
the  liberty. 

The  hospital  for  that  terrible  malady  the  leprosy,  cited  by  Tanner 
as  existing  here  temp.  Edward  II.,  originated  in  all  probability  early  in 
the  twelfth  century  when  the  disease  was  making  great  ravages  in 
England.  At  that  time,  before  the  general  foundation  of  monasteries, 
it  was  the  especial  province  of  the  Church  to  relieve  the  sick  and  the 
poor,  and  there  are  good  reasons  for  supposing  that  it  was  to  the 

*  Burton's  Mon.  Ebor.  p.   189. 

t  The  compotus  of  Bolton  Abbey  for  1290  also  mentions  a  Henry  de  Otteley.     See 
Dr.  Whitaker's  Craven  yA  ed.,  pages  455,  454,  457. 
J  Mon.  Ang.  I.  510. 


5' 

forethought  and  charity  of  the  above-mentioned  Archbishop  Thurstan 
that  the  hospital  at  Otley  was  due.  He  also  founded  the  leper's  hospital 
of  St.  Mary  Magdalene  at  Ripon,  and  the  old  Norman  chapel,  with  its 
low  side  window,  belonging  to  it,  is  still  standing  at  the  north  end  of 
Stammergate,  not  far  from  the  river.  Archbishop  Thurstan  died  in 
1139,  at  which  time  there  were  at  least  10,000  hospitals  in  Europe 
containing  lepers.  In  Yorkshire  they  stood  at  the  entrance  of  many  of 
our  old  towns  such  as  York,  Pontefract,  Newton  near  Hedon,  Richmond, 
Whitby,  &c.  At  Otley  the  site  is  not  accurately  known,  but  Dr.  Shaw 
(1830)  thinks  it  was  in  Westgate,  as  certain  houses  there  are  described 
in  the  old  parish-books  as  the  Hospital.*  But  ex-Councillor  John 
Brown,  of  Otley,  now  in  his  8oth  year,  tells  me  that  in  his  young 
days  there  were  three  very  old  thatched  houses  (at  one  time  forming 
one  dwelling)  in  Cross  Green,  which  were  always  spoken  of  as 
Leper  Houses.  My  own  opinion  is  that  the  enclosure  marked  in  the 
tithe-award  map  as  Spittal  Field,  on  the  Pool  road,  near  the  Cemetery, 
is  the  likeliest  locality,  as  these  hospitals  were  invariably  isolated  and 
near  one  of  the  principal  entrances  to  a  town.  Strangers  were  not 
allowed  to  enter  a  town  without  passport,  and  anyone  with  the  disease 
upon  him  would  be  told  off  to  the  hospital  for  temporary  relief  pending 
further  enquiry.  The  disease  was  no  doubt  caused  by  the  wretched 
habits  of  the  time,  uncleanliness  (the  poor  for  centuries  could  not  afford 
soap)  bad  dietary,  indulgence  in  diseased  meat  and  damaged  vegetables. 
At  Berwick-on-Tweed  it  was  even  ordered  that  all  rotten  meat  and  fish 
were  to  be  given  to  the  lepers,  and  if  there  were  no  lepers  then  the 
corrupt  meat  was  to  be  destroyed.  Indeed  the  refuse  of  most  markets 
was  usually  the  perquisite  of  these  poor  fallen  creatures. 

King  Richard's  poll-tax  for  1378  gives  us  the  names  of  the  lay 
adult  inhabitants  of  Otley  at  that  time,  and  from  this  list  we  find  there 
were  43  married  couples  and  25  single  persons  above  the  age  of  i6f 
who  contributed  their  hard-earned  groats  to  satisfy  the  warlike  King's 
ambition  to  maintain  Calais  as  an  English  port.  The  people  of 
Otley,  it  may  be  safely  affirmed,  cared  little  whether  it  belonged  to  the 
French  or  the  English,  but  they  were  compelled  perhaps  to  provide 
men  as  well  as  to  submit  to  the  obnoxious  tax,  which  as  is  well  known 
afterwards  led  to  the  Wat  Tyler  rebellion.  The  principal  tax-payer  at 

*  Are  these  the  two  old  alms-houses  in  Westgate  for  poor  widows  ?  The  offices  of 
Messrs.  Payne's  machine-works  now  occupy  the  site. 

t  Assuming-  that  the  43  householders  had  each  a  family  of  three  children  under  16, 
and  allowing  for  the  clergy  and  a  few  others,  not  included  in  this  enumeration,  we 
shall  be  safe  in  estimating  the  population  at  about  250  in  1,379.  Bingley  at  this  time 
(1379)  was  just  twice  as  populous  as  Otley,  while  the  present  great  city  of  Bradford, 
not  so  large  as  Otley,  had  only  26  married  couples  and  34  single  adults. 


52 

Otley  was  Johannes  Filius  Ade  [de  Otley?],  or  John  Adamson,  who  is 
described  as  a  "  franklan "  (gentleman),  and  paid  35.  4d. ;  all  the  rest 
were  engaged  in  agriculture  or  farm-service  and  paid  4d.,  except  a  tailor, 
a  shoemaker,  a  mason,  and  a  smith,  each  of  whom  was  assessed  at  6d.* 
It  is  noteworthy  that  no  innkeeper  is  mentioned,  as  one  would  have 
thought  there  had  been  hostelries  at  Otley  at  an  early  period  for  the 
convenience  of  those  attending  the  markets,  as  well  as  the  hostilers 
were  sometimes  called  on  to  act  as  hostages  for  merchants  under  the 
old  trade-guilds.  There  does  not,  however,  appear  to  have  been  any 
licensed  inns  in  1379  between  Bradford  (where  there  were  three)  and 
Knaresbro'  and  Ripon,  although  there  was  at  least  one  brewery  at 
Ripley.  Yet  I  find  that  in  1345,  when  the  Abbot  of  Selby  travelled  to 
Preston  to  treat  with  John  of  Gaunt,  then  Earl  of  Derby,  he  baited  his 
horse  at  Otley,  and  paid  for  pan  pro  pale/rid,  id.  before  proceeding  to 
Skipton. 

War  and  pestilence  ravaged  the  country  during  the  greater  part 
of  the  succeeding  century,  and  the  reports  everywhere  are  that  large 
tracts  of  old  farm-land  remained  uncultivated.  In  1372  the  population 
of  England  was  estimated  at  rather  over  2,000,000  and  there  was  no 
increase  for  fully  a  hundred  years  after  that  date.f  When  the  sixteenth 
century  was  ushered  in  with  ill-bodings  in  the  north,  the  flower  of  the 
Craven  dales,  its  young  and  able-bodied  men,  was  singled  out  from  an 
already  sadly-thinned  populace  to  aid  the  King's  forces  against  the 
Scotch.  The  "  Shepherd  Lord  "  quitted  his  lonely  retreat  in  the  Forest 
of  Harden,  and  leading  the  "bone  and  sinew"  of  Wharfedale  far  into 
Northumberland,  triumphed  on  the  field  of  Bannockburn  in  1513.  The 
names  of  those  who  Avent  with  bill  and  bow  from  Otley  have  not  been 
discovered,  but  a  portion  of  the  list  preserved  among  the  records  at 
Bolton  Abbey,  furnishes  the  names  of  many  from  villages  adjacent.^ 

Proud  the  day  when  in  1525  this  Shepherd  Lord's  son  rode  in  state 
from  Skipton  to  London,  to  receive  that  mark  of  the  Royal  favour 
which  advanced  him  to  the  rank  of  Earl  of  Cumberland  !  Doubtless 
the  grand  liveried  cavalcade  passed  through  Otley.  It  included  thirty- 
three  servants,  all  well  mounted,  with  the  noble  Earl's  chaplain,  the 
parson  of  Guiseley,  "  Sir  "  Thomas  Benson,  whose  fur-lined  gown  and 
other  rich  vestments  had  been  new-made  for  the  occasion,  as  appears 
by  the  Skipton  Household  Books,  for  the  wonderful  sum  of  135.  4d.  In 

*  There  was  no  joiner  or  carpenter  here  then,  although  I  find  mention  made  of 
William  the  Carpenter  at  Otley  in  a  grant  by  Archbishop  Walter  Gray,  A.D.  1215-55.— 
Surtees,  vol.  56,  p.  252. 

f  See  Denton's  England  in  the  Fifteenth  Century,  p.  130. 

£  See  the  author's  Craven  Highlands,  pp.  61-66. 


53 

1523  we  have  a  list  of  inhabitants  of  Otley,*  and  in  the  Muster  Roll  for 
1539  we  find  the  names  of  twenty-seven  Otley  men,  able-bodied  and  fit 
for  war.f  This  was  on  the  eve  of  the  downthrow  of  the  monastei 
for  the  continuance  of  which  the  people  of  Otley  seem  to  have  had 
little  sympathy.  The  parishioners  became  speedy  converts  to  the  new 
arrangements,  and  by  1604  there  were  only  five  persons  in  Otley  parish 
who  absented  themselves  from  the  reformed  church.  These  were, 
according  to  Peacock's  list,  Dorothy,  wife  of  Win.  Thompson;  Hugh 
Sherburne,  Esq.,  and  Elizabeth,  his  wife,  of  Esholt ;  Dorothy  Inghain, 
their  servant ;  and  Robert  Fauconbridge,  of  Burley,  a  servant  of  Wm. 
Middleton,  Esq.,  who  had  not  been  to  the  Parish  Church  for  a  year. 
In  1669  the  recussants  in  Otley  were  reduced  to  two,  namely,  Anthony 
West,  and  Mary,  his  wife;  while  Pool  claimed  one  in  the  steadfast 
person  of  John  Sparrow. 

When  the  Civil  War  broke  out,  urged  by  the  J'uritan  party,  as  it 
was  said,  "  for  the  safety  of  Protestantism,"  the  parish  of  Otley  provided 
a  gallant  leader  in  the  person  of  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax,  of  Denton  Hall, 
who,  with  his  father,  Ferdinando,  Lord  Fairfax,  of  Steeton  Hall,  York, 
were  two  of  the  most  conspicuous  personages  in  the  events  of  that 
tumultous  period.  Ferdinando,  worn  out  with  the  troubles  and  disasters 
of  the  time,  died  in  1648,  and  his  son  Thomas,  created  Lord  Fairfax, 
was  made  General  of  the  Parliamentary  forces  throughout  England. 
Could  the  gallant  General  have  foreseen  the  protracted  strife  and  trial 
of  conscience  he  subsequently  suffered,  one  can  hardly  believe  he 
would  have  entered  on  such  a  career.  That  he  erred  in  judgment, 
observes  Hartley  Coleridge,  none  will  deny.  The  event  proved  it.J 
He  took  no  part  in  the  king's  death,  and  when  the  regicide  Court 
assembled  he  was  not  present,  and  his  lady  even  dared  to  exclaim,  as 
the  court-crier  was  waiting  the  response  to  his  name,  which  was  placed 
first  on  the  list  of  judges,  "  He  has  more  wit  than  to  be  here."  Yet 
this  same  spirited  dame  had  no  doubt  been  largely  instrumental  in 
guiding  and  urging  his  choice  of  action,  for  she  was  a  daughter  of  the 
able  and  valiant  Horatio,  Lord  Vere,  under  whom  Fairfax  had  served 
in  Holland,  and  had  "  learned  her  religion  and  politics  in  the  Dutch 
Republic."  She  had  no  sympathy  with  the  strong  Roman  Catholic 
feeling  that  prevailed  in  England,  and  no  doubt  resented  Queen 
Henrietta's  endeavours  to  raise  supplies  from  the  English  Catholics  for 
the  Royal  cause.  Lord  Fairfax  himself,  was  one  of  the  few  noblemen 
in  the  north  that  threw  in  his  lot  with  the  Parliament,  and  though  at 

*  Yorks.  Archl.JL,  vol.  ii.,  p.  290.         f  See  Thoresby  Soc.  Pub,,  vol.  iv.,  p.  251. 
^  Worthies  of  Yorkshire  and  Lancashire,  p.  181. 


54 

heart  a  Presbyterian,  one  is  tempted  to  question  whether,  if  left  to  his 
own  unguided  judgment,  he  would  have  allied  himself  among  the 
"enemies  of  his  king.''*  His  father,  however,  was  "actively  and 
zealously  disaffected  to  the  king,"  and  his  brother  Charles,  though 
afterwards  a  good  friend  to  the  Restoration,  took  some  share  in 
formulating  the  Parliamentary  schemes. 

Charles  Fairfax,  who  was  a  ripe  scholar  and  antiquary,  and 
author  of  the  Analecta  fairfaxiana,  lived  at  this  time  retired  from 
public  gaze  at  the  old  hall  at  Menston.  It  is  said  that  while  Prince 
Rupert  was  lodged  at  Denton  Hall,  three  days  before  the  crushing 
defeat  of  the  Royalists  at  Marston  in  1644,  Cromwell,  accompanied  by 
Sir  Thomas  Fairfax,  visited  Charles  Fairfax  at  Menston  Hall,  and 
round  a  stone  table,  now  at  Farnley  Hall,  discussed  and  devised  those 
plans  which  culminated  in  that  disastrous  battle  which  proved  the 
turning  point  of  the  war.f  The  town  of  Otley  quietly  sided  with  their 
powerful  neighbours  at  Denton,  and  many  an  Otley  stripling  would 
shew  his  mettle  at  Marston  Moor.  A  sad  time  it  was,  too.  Some, 
whose  names  we  know  not,  doubtless  fell  on  that  day  of  ruthless 
carnage ;  some  perhaps  worn  out  with  the  ill  fare  and  hardships  of  the 
time  died  prematurely  soon  afterwards.  In  the  Otley  registers  I  have 
noted  such  an  entry  as  this  : — 

1644,  Richard  Skelton,  a  souldier,  buryed  the  xth  of  October, 

This  is  little  more  than  three  months  after  the  great  battle.  Then  in 
1647  appears: — 

Mathew  Peale,  a  souldier,  buryed  the  sixth  day  of  April),  1647. 

Otley,  situated  as  it  is  mid-way  between  the  two  garrison-towns  of 
Skipton  and  Knaresbro',  was  naturally  the  victim  of  some  occasional 
raids,  and  when,  after  the  Preston  rout  in  1648,  Cromwell  and  Lambert 
led  the  army  into  Yorkshire,  we  find  that  the  two  generals  camped  at 
Otley  for  a  night,  and  there  is  a  tradition  at  Otley  that  some  of  the 

*  Mark  the  tone  of  gracious  loyalty  and  condescension  in  the  letter  addressed  by 
Fairfax  to  Her  Majesty,  after  the  opening  of  the  war  in  1642-3,  quoted  in  Whitaker's 
Loidis  and  El-mete,  pp.  194-5. 

f  The  table  has  been  raised  on  two  stone  supports  against  the  west  wall  of  the  old 
dairy  at  Farnley.  Its  surface  measurement  is  4  feet  8  inches  by  3  feet,  and  a  brass  plate 
in  the  middle  of  it  reads  : 

AT  THIS   TABLE, 

which  formerly  stood  in  the  Orchard  of  Menston  Hall, 
The  seat  of  Colonel  Charles  Fairfax, 

OLIVER     CROMWELL 
(according  to  a  tradition  carefully  handed  down) 

DINED 

June  3<Dth,  1644, 
Two  days  preceding  the  decisive  battle  of  Marston  Moor, 


55 

soldiers  entered  the  Black  Bull  inn   and   drank   every  drop  of  liquid 
they  could  find.     In  a  despatch  by  Cromwell  to  Parliament  he  writes  : 

Alter  the  conjunction  of  that  party  which  I  brought  with  mi-  out  of  \Vales  with  the 
northern  forces  about  Knaresborouj;!!  and  \Vetherby  hearinff  that  tin-  enemy  was 
advanced  with  their  army  into  Lancashire,  we  marched  the  next  dav,  bein^  the  131  h  of 
this  instant  August,  to  Otley  (having  cast  oil  our  train,  and  sent  it  to  Knaresboroujfh, 
because  of  the  difficulty  of  marching  tlierewith  through  Craven,  and  to  the  end  we 
might  with  more  expedition  attend  the  enemy's  motion)  ;  and  on  the  i-Jth  to  Skipton  ; 
the  I5th  to  Gisburn  ;  the  i6th  to  Hodder  Bridge,  over  Kibble  ;  wher<-  \\-e  held  a 
council  of  war. 

The  Royalist  vicar  of  Otley  had  been  obliged  to  resign  on  the 
outbreak  of  the  war,  and  the  pulpit  was  filled  by  "ministers"  of 
Puritan  bias,  whose  prayers  were  for  Cromwell  and  "  liberty."  Public 
"fast-days"  were  frequently  held  in  the  town,  in  atonement  partly,  it 
may  be  supposed,  for  the  duty  of  taking  up  arms. 

When  Oliver  Cromwell  was  "  King"  I  find  a  number  of  entries  in 
the  register  of  marriages  "  solemnized  "  not  by  a  minister  of  religion, 
but  before  the  martial.  Colonel  Fairfax,  at  Menston  Hall.  The  Act  ot 
1653  required  that  all  marriage  contracts  should  be  performed  and 
completed  before  a  magistrate,  and  the  young  couples  instead  of  being 
married  in  their  Parish  Church,  as  of  old,  had  to  trudge  off  to  Menston, 
taking  witnesses  with  them  to  certify  to  their  legitimate  union.  The 
following  I  have  copied  are  samples  of  these  local  civil  contracts : — 

Thomas  West,  of  Otley,  and  Dorothy  Scott,  of  the  same  place,  marrycd  at  Weston 
the  xijth  daie  of  ffebruary,  1654,  without  publication.  [It  would  appear  the  banns  had 
never  been  published  in  this  case.] 

Xickolas  Hudson,  of  Baildon,  and  Mary  Hartley,  of  Hawkesworth,  boath  of  this 
p'ish,  marryed  at  Menston,  before  Coll.  ffairfax,  the  xijth  daie  of  ffebruary,  1654. 

On  Saturday,  April  3oth,  1649,  two  Otley  men,  named  John 
Hollins  and  James  Dallin,  were  executed  at  York,  for  rebellion,  and  it 
may  also  be  mentioned  in  connection  with  the  Farnley  Wood  Plot,  four 
natives  of  Otley,  viz. :  Timothy  Mosley,  John  Hutchinson,  David 
Jackson,  and  Cornelius  Thompson,  suffered  with  fourteen  others  at  the 
York  Tyburn,  on  Wednesday,  January  25th,  1663.  Two  of  them  were 
quartered,  and  their  heads  and  quarters  set  up  on  the  several  gates  of 
the  city;  four  of  their  heads  were  placed  over  Micklegate  Bar,  three 
at  Boothan  Bar,  one  at  Walmgate  Bar,  one  at  Monk  Bar,  and  three 
over  the  Castle  Gates.  The  well-known  story  of  this  unfortunate 
rebellion  need  not  be  repeated  here.  Otley  has  always  been  particularly 
free  from  crimes  of  a  serious  nature,  and  for  500  years,  viz. :  from  1379 
to  1879,  I  believe  these  six  natives  of  Otley  are  the  only  persons  in  the 
parish  who  have  suffered  the  extreme  penalty  of  the  law.* 

*  See  the  author's  Old  Bingley,  page  253,  also  Mayhall's  Annals,  vol.  i.,  pp.  587  and 
661. 


56 

In  1672  there  were  108  householders  in  Otley  who  paid  the  tax 
for  their  fires  or  hearth-stones;  in  all  there  were  278  hearths,  the  old 
Court-house  of  the  Archbishop  having  been  vacated,  as  also  the  Free 
School.  The  principal  contributors  were  Mr.  Stephen  Topham,  who 
paid  for  12  hearths;  Mr.  Henry  Wilkinson,  10;  Mrs.  Dawson,  7; 
Mr.  Edward  Barker,  7  ;  Seth  Pullan,  7  ;  Anne  Hobson,  6,  and  the 
following  had  each  5  hearths  :  Peter  Rhoades,  Mr.  Pullan,  Rich.  Hogg, 
Henry  Wyley,  Rich.  Rhoades,  Wid.  Braithwaite,  Wm.  Tebbs,  Anthony 
Hall,  and  Mr.  Fawkes.  The  name  of  Thomas  England  is  entered 
three  times  for  3,  2,  i.  All  others  had  from  one  to  four  hearths  each.* 

As  affording  some  idea  of  the  general  status  of  Otley,  towards  the 
close  of  this  century,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  it  was  rated  higher 
than  any  other  place  in  the  wapentake,  Leeds  only  excepted.f  In 
1715  and  also  in  1745,  I  find  Otley  witnessed  some  of  the  proceedings 
connected  with  the  Stuart  rebellion  which  terminated  in  the  "  waefu' 
day  o'  Drumossie  Muir."  In  the  Skipton  Township  Books  are  entries 
of  items  of  expenditure  for  conveying  baggage  and  sick  and  lame 
soldiers  from  Skipton  to  Otley4  The  bone  and  sinew  of  Otley  was 
called  on  to  defend  His  Majesty's  peace  on  the  Jacobite  rising  in  1715, 
just  as  we  have  seen  many  a  gallant  Otley  lad  had  shouldered  pike  or 
musket  on  the  terrible  day  of  Marston  Moor.  I  have  seen  an  old 
manuscript  volume  at  Bolton  Abbey  which  gives  a  "  long  list  of  militia- 
men ordered  to  be  raised  in  different  divisions  of  Yorkshire,  and  Otley 
figures  largely  in  that  list.  The  first  list  for  Otley  commands  Mr. 
Dinsdale,  as  principal,  and  then  follows  these  names  of  contributors  . — 
John  Stables,  Occupiers  of  Mr.  Sperm's  Lands,  Robert  Snawden, 
Thomas  Dunwell,  Quintan  Rennard,  David  Rhodes,  Robert  Barker, 
Wm.  Hoddington,  Joseph  Page,  John  Cowgill,  Jeremy  Myers,  and 
Christ,  fflesher.  (2nd  list.)  James  Powell,  principal,  followed  by  13 
others.  (3rd.)  Lawr.  fflesher,  principal,  and  10  others.  (4th.)  Joseph 
Stocks,  principal,  and  7  others.  (5th.)  Daniel  Neale,  principal,  and  17 
others.  (6th.)  Joseph  Whitehead,  principal,  and  TO  others.  Altogether 
85  persons  in  Otley  were  called  on  to  provide  an  able  man  each  or 
serve  themselves  in  the  King's  cause  against  the  Pretender,  James 
Stuart.  When  Prince  Charles  Stuart  beat  a  hasty  retreat  from  Derby 
through  Lancashire  in  December,  1745,  a  portion  of  Marshall  Wade's 
army  passed  through  Bradford  on  December  2ist,  though  it  is  not 
very  certain  which  was  the  route  it  afterwards  took.  It  was  obviously 
sent  to  cut  off  the  Prince's  retreat  northward  from  Preston.  Spies  to  and 
from  Skipton  (an  intelligence  station)  doubtless  passed  through  Otley. 

*  See  Tlwresby  Soc.  Pub.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  26-27. 

f   Yorks,  Archl.Jl.,  vol.  i.,  p.  160-1.         +  Dawson's  Skipton,  p.  146-7. 


CHAPTER     III. 


THK  TOWN  OF  OTLEY,  PAST  AND  PRESENT. 

The  town  of  Otley      Nnt«l  visitors     Antiquity  of  the  parish   and  origin  of  tin-  rliurch 
Comparison  with  Dewsbury     Historical  and  architectural  account  of  the  church 
The   building  of  the  aisles   -Kndowment    of  the  chantry-chapels     The  tombs  and 
tablets     The    families   of   Fairfax,    Fawkcs,    and    Vavasour --The   medic-ties   of   Un- 
church    List  (annotated)  of  vicars  -  Abstracts  from  the  registers— The  churchyard 

The     Crammar     School      Local      Nonconformity     The      Friends      \\VsIevans 
Independents      Baptists      Primitive   .Methodists,   <fcc.    -Old   roads  and  streets,  their 
origin  ami  significance     Old  Otley  inns  -Attack  on    Lord  Fairfax      Life  at  Otley  in 
the  coaching-days    -'I'he  railways — Pleasant  aspects — Local  trades  and  industries 
The  Wharfedale  Agricultural  Society;  its  origin  and  history — Amusing  anecdote-, 
—Various  old  customs  at  Otley— The  Maypole— Old  Otley  families  -Distinguished 
natives. 

"  '  -  HEN  Camden  wrote  his  wonderful  Britannia  more  than 
three  centuries  ago  all  that  he  deemed  it  necessary  to 
say  about  Otley  was  that  it  was  "  memorable  for 
nothing  but  its  situation  under  a  huge  craggy  cliff 
called  Chevin,"  an  opinion  which  I  venture  to  think 
will  be  disputed  by  those  who  consider  the  thirty  pages  that  precede 
this  present  chapter.  But  old  writers  are  generally  brief  in  their 
dissertations  upon  individual  localities.  Although  brevity  may  be  said 
to  be  a  negative  rather  than  a  positive  virtue,  yet  in  these  days  of 
research  and  enlightenment,  when  the  interest  in  the  lives  of  persons  and 
in  events  connected  with  particular  places  in  former  times  has  greatly 
increased,  the  local  historian  of  the  present  day  would  certainly  be 
judged  ill-fitted  for  his  task  were  he  to  forego  every  consideration  of  an 
ancient  town  save  its  dominant  feature. 

Otley  indeed  before  the  century  just  closed  has  not  come  in  for  a 
large  measure  of  notice  at  the  hands  of  the  historian  and  topographer. 
Warburton,  the  acute  antiquary,  who  came  here  in  1718,  simply 
describes  it  as  "a  small  village,"  but  the  observant  poet  Gray,  who  did 
not  profess  either  history  or  topography,  furnishes  perhaps  the  best 
among  the  earlier  notices  of  the  locality,  and  that  is  but  brief.  In  the 
autumn  of  1769  he  drove  from  Skipton  in  Craven  and  descended  the 
Chevin  into  Otley,  which  he  describes  as  "a  large  airy  town,  with  clean 
but  low  rustic  buildings,  and  a  bridge  over  the  Wharfe,"  and  then  he 
adds,  "  I  went  into  its  spacious  Gothic  church,  which  has  been  new 


58 

roofed,  with  a   flat  stucco-ceiling."     A  few  lines  on  the  monuments 
follow,  and  that  is  the  sum  of  his  remarks  upon  the  old  town. 

The  Church  is,  of  course,  the  most  important  erection,  and  around 
its  time-stained  walls  and  hallowed  ground  there  cling  memories 
redolent  of  the  far  distant  past.  The  pre-Conquest  crosses,  very 
properly  preserved  within  the  church  (an  example  that  might  be 
followed  in  many  other  places),  proclaim  a  high  antiquity  to  the 
teaching  of  Christianity  in  these  parts.  Dr.  Shaw  has  stated,  and  his 
assertion  has  been  often  repeated,  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  there  was  a 
church  in  Otley  in  630,  "  which  was  burnt,  with  the  town,  by  the 


VICINITY  OF  OTLEY  CHURCH   FIFTY  YEARS  AGO. 

pagans,"*  an  opinion,  I  am  obliged  to  say,  unsupported  by  a  single 
authentic  record.  If  Christianity  had  obtained  a  footing  in  the  place 
at  this  early  period,  and  as  I  think  I  have  shewn  there  is  a  probability 
that  it  had,  it  is  not  likely  in  these  unsettled  times  there  would  be 
anything  more  than  a  preaching-cross  erected  so  soon  after  the  con- 
version of  the  Northumbrian  king  Edwin,  in  627.  While  the  west  of 
Yorkshire  had  in  the  first  instance  been  Christianised  from  the  north  by 
Qeltic  missionaries,  the  Anglo-Saxons,  on  their  colonization  of  Wharfe- 
dale,  presumably  in  the  sixth  century,  when  Deira  was  conquered 
(559)  by  Ella,  were  rank  heathens,  and  were  the  actual  founders  of  Otley 
before  the  annexation  of  Elmete.  They  received  their  first  impulse 

*   Wharfedale  (1830),  p.  109. 


59 

tn  the  true  faith  through  the  Roman  missionary  Paulinus,  who,  as  I 
have  said,  lied  from  the  north  on  its  relapse,  or  perhaps  partial  relaj 
into  paganism  in  633.*  As  shewing  how  slowly  the  tide  of  Christianity 
uas  moving  at  this  time,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  the  great  Saxon 
parish  of  Dewsbury,  which  is  stated,  though  on  questionable  authority, 
to  have  originally  covered  an  area  of  nearly  400  square  miles,  had  but 
one  church  recorded  in  the  Domesday  inquest  ;  while  in  the  whole 
wapentake  of  Morley  there  were  only  two  churches  which  can  with  any 
degree  of  certainty  be  referred  to  the  first  period  of  Saxon  church- 
building,  f  The  two  important  parishes  of  Bradford  and  Halifax  had 
no  churches  authenticated  at  the  time  of  the  Norman  survey,  although 
they  had  long  existed  as  separate  townships,  whose  boundaries  formed 
the  parishes  which  joined  up  northwards  to  the  parishes  of  Otley  and 
Bingley.  Bingley,  Bradford,  and  Halifax  may  have  had  small  chapels 
of  wood  or  stone  and  thatch,  or  only  preaching-crosses,  before  the 
Norman  conquest,  but  such  chapels  are  never  mentioned  in  Domes- 
day. At  each  of  these  places  fragments  of  Anglo-Saxon  crosses  still 
exist.  Otley  on  the  other  hand  had  undoubtedly,  like  Dewsbury, 
as  the  capital  of  a  wide  parish  in  the  Saxon  era,  a  church  and  a  priest. 
This  is  stated  in  Domesday,  and  it  is  significant  that  two  other 
churches  in  this  part  of  Wharfedale  are  also  recorded  in  1086,  viz.,  at 
Ilkley  and  Weston,  shewing  that  Christianity  had  become  a  citadel  of 
strength  in  this  neighbourhood,  as  it  had  been  for  centuries  before  the 
Norman  conquest.  The  teaching  of  Paulinus,  however,  did  not  at 
once,  except  in  one  or  two  special  instances,  as  at  York,  lead  to  the 
erection  of  churches  ;  nor  is  it  likely  that  either  Dewsbury  or  Otley  can 
lay  claim  to  their  structural  foundations  dating  earlier  than  the  final 
overthrow  of  paganism  in  Yorkshire  in  655.!  The  dedication  of  most 
of  the  ancient  churches  of  the  Saxon  parishes  of  Elmete  to  All  Saints, 
which  I  have  before  alluded  to,  does  in  some  measure  support  the  idea 
that  after  the  Synod  of  Whitby  in  664,  when  "  Rome  rule"  supplanted 
"  Home  rule,"  the  attempt  was  made  to  maintain  the  Romish  supremacy 
and  to  commemorate  in  the  most  practical  manner  the  achievement  of 
Pope  Boniface  IV.  in  making  the  Roman  church  the  head  and  mistress 
of  all  churches.  In  610  the  heathen  temple  of  the  Pantheon  at  Rome 
had  been  converted  into  a  church  of  God  Almighty,  and  dedicated  to 

*  The  local  absence  of  heathen  place-names  does  not  premise  that  Christianity 
then  prevailed,  though  it  may  g-ive  colour  to  the  belief  that  Otley  and  the  Anglian 
settlements  in  Wharfedale  were  not  colonized  until  after  the  annexation  of  Elmete, 
A.D.  627-630. 

f  See  Whitaker's  Loidis  and  Elmete,  p.  274. 

J  According-  to  Lappenberg,  very  few  churches  were  erected  before  the  time  of 
Archbishop  Egbert,  of  York,  A.D.  731-766. 


6o 

the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary  and  all  the  Saints,  a  dedication  warmly 
followed  in  the  erection  of  churches  throughout  Christendom.*  The 
period  following  these  events  was  marked  by  marvellous  efforts  to 
promote  Christianity  in  the  north,  and  however  thinly  scattered  its 
seeds  were  sown,  there  is  no  doubt  that,  compared  with  other  parts  of 
England,  the  church  in  Northumbria  was  the  very  root  and  sap  of  the 
Church  of  England  at  this  time. 

Whilst  the  establishment  of  a  seventh  century  church  at  Otley 
must  ever  remain  conjectural,  there  can,  I  think,  be  little  doubt  from 
what  I  have  said  in  the  first  chapter 'that  on  the  acquisition  of  the 
parish  by  the  See  of  York,  in  the  reign  of  Athelstan  (a  grant  that  gives 
additional  force  to  the  idea  of  its  being  already  an  important  centre  of 
religion)  a  more  commodious  church  would  soon  afterwards  be  erected. 
It  should  be  remembered  that  over  a  great  part  of  Yorkshire,  and 
particularly  in  the  western  dales,  the  land  was  poor,  rugged,  and 
mountainous,  the  parishes  were  of  large  extent  and  consequently 
churches  were  few  and  far  between.  But  through  the  fostering  care  of 
the  archbishops  the  parish  of  Otley  in  the  later  Saxon  times  attained, 
as  I  have  before  explained,  a  high  degree  of  prosperity,  which  led  no 
doubt  to  the  subsequent  founding  of  churches  at  Ilkley  and  Weston, 
and  perhaps  chapels  at  Guiseley,  Baildon,  and  other  outlying  places  in 
the  parish  before  the  Norman  Conquest. 

On  the  recovery  of  the  parish  from  the  ravages  of  the  Conquest, 
early  in  the  i2th  century  (the  greater  part  of  the  manor  in  1086  being 
waste),  a  larger  and  better  church  would  be  erected  in  accordance  with 
the  spirit  of  the  times.  It  is  to  this  period  I  refer  the  existing  north 
doorway,  which  has  a  plain,  round  arch  supported  by  single  columns 
with  square  abaci  and  large  trefoiled  capitals,  evidence  of  rather  late 
date.  When  the  north  aisle  was  added  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VII.  this 
Norman  doorway  was  moved  to  its  present  position,  as  appears  by  the 
Perpendicular  masonry  on  either  side  of  it.  The  original  church 
would  have  a  mere  bell-turret  and  no  tower.  It  appears  to  have 
occupied  the  site  of  the  present  chancel,  and  to  have  extended  south- 
wards to  the  Denton  Chapel  and  westwards  as  far  as  the  columns  of 
the  transept  arches,  where  a  foundation  wall  was  discovered  in  1867. 
At  this  time  the  floor  was  concreted,  which  necessitated  the  deepening 
of  some  old  graves.  While  this  was  going  on  a  very  remarkable  tomb 
was  discovered  in  the  chancel.  It  was  about  four  feet  below  the 
surface,  and  hardly  wider  and  deeper  than  an  ordinary  coffin.  The 
sides  and  ends  were  built  up  of  rough  unmortared  cobble-stones, 

*  1  may  here  observe  that  a  dedication  festival  at  Otley  has  been  instituted  by  the 
present  vicar  of  Otley,  Mr.  Frost,  and  was  held  for  the  first  time  on  All  Saints  Day, 
Nov.  i  st.,  1899. 


6i 

overlaid  with  similarly  large  unhewn  stones.  On  removing  this  rude 
cover  no  body  was  found,  only  a  tress  <>l  temale  hair  and  some  teeth, 
while  the  soil  was  covered  with  a  white  dust.  On  the  antiquity  of  this 
burial  I  shall  not  presume  to  speak,  but  it  is  evidently  pre-Norman. 
There  were  no  rings  or  relics,  nor  even  a  nail,  shewing  that  the  body 
had  been  buried  uncoffined.  There  is  a  very  early  look  about  some  of 
the  masonry  at  the  east  end  of  the  chancel,  and  also  in  the  south  wall, 
which  is  built  of  stones  of  all  shapes  and  sizes,  and  with  wide  joints. 
It  may  also  be  noted  there  is  no  string-course. 


NORMAN    DOORWAY,   OTLEY   CHURCH. 

In  1851  part  of  a  Saxon  cross  was  found  in  the  chancel  walls, 
having  been  preserved  there  by  later  builders  on  the  enlargement  of  the 
church.  The  many  and  varied  fragments  of  sculptured  crosses  and 
other  remains  of  Christian  antiquity  in  the  church,  supply  strong  proof 
of  the  importance  of  Otley  as  a  centre  of  the  faith  in  early  times. 
Apparently  one  of  the  oldest  of  these  relics  is  the  plain  semi-cylindrical 
base  of  a  cross,  now  placed  against  the  west  wall  of  the  tower,  which 
seems  to  belong  to  the  same  class  as  the  famous  Pillar  of  Eliseg,  near 
Valle  Crucis,  in  Denbighshire,  an  illustration  of  which  appears  on  page 
27  of  the  late  Rev.  W.  S.  Calverley's  Early  Sculptured  Crosses  (1899), 
edited  by  the  able  pen  of  Mr.  W.  G.  Collingwood,  M.A.  It  is  said  to 


62 

be  Mercian  in  type  rather  than  Northumbrian,  and  is  not  found  either 
in  Scotland  or  Ireland,  and  only  once  in  Wales.  There  are  also  some 
large  and  very  beautiful  fragments,  now  in  the  baptistery,  one  of  which 
bears  the  device  of  a  creature  having  the  appearance  of  an  eagle's 
head  with  winged  body  and  dragon's  tail.  It  is  a  magnificent  and 
probably  unique  piece  of  sculpture.  For  a  long  period  happily 
it  had  been  out  of  harm's  way,  having  been  basely  used  as  a 
building-stone  over  the  chancel-arch,  whence  it  was  removed  at  the 
restoration  in  1867.  Another  stone  bears  on  its  front  face  several  busts 
in  panels  which  seems  to  be  of  similar  date  and  workmanship.  Mr. 
Thomas  Drew,  R.H.A.,  of  Dublin,  who  has  designed  many  Celtic 
crosses,  now  in  various  parts  of  the  world,  believes  the  two  stones  have 
formed  part  of  one  cross,  and  has  ventured  to  "  restore  '  it  as  shewn  in 
the  accompanying  illustration.  In  design  it  is  Celtic,  yet  in  its  sculpture 
which  is  remarkably  well  and  boldly  executed  characteristically  Franco- 
Norman,  and  evidently  historically  and  symbolically  significant  in 
every  part.  The  date  of  this  fine  churchyard  cross  may  be  nth  or 
1 2th  century.  The  heads  in  the  bottom  panels  are  probably  of  historical 
personages.*  The  central  fragments  also  bear  evidences  of  the  Celtic 

*  Mr.  W.  G.  Collingwood,  to  whom  I  have  submitted  photographs  of  the  crosses 
inclines  to  think  there  is  too  great  a  tendency  to  judge  this  kind  of  home  work  by 
Irish  art.  In  Ireland  the  type  lasted  longer  than  it  did  here.  Our  artists,  he  says, 
certainly  cannot  be  judged  by  Irish  dates,  any  more  than  Scotch,  and  in  Scotland 
the  pre-Norman  type  lasted  till  the  Reformation.  He  is  of  opinion  that  the  two 
fragments  have  not  formed  part  of  one  cross,  though  it  is  difficult  to  pronounce  upon 
them  without  seeing  the  objects  themselves.  The  fragment  bearing  the  scrolls  with 
animals  and  birds  shews  extremely  beautiful  work  though  not  very  early  Anglian 
it  might  be  dated  8th  century  or  possibly  early  gth.  The  two  lower  figures  hold  books 
not  unlike  the  usual  representations  of  evangelists  on  crosses  of  that  type.  The 
uppermost  figure  seems  to  be  an  angel.  As  to  the  so-called  eagle-dragon  stone  he 
holds  that  it  is  not  an  eagle,  but  the  usual  northern  dragon  which  has  two  totally 
distinct  meanings  in  its  original  symbolization.  One  has  the  devil,  the  old  serpent, 
Leviathan,  Midgard's  worm,  &c.,  and  in  Christian  monuments  placed  beneath^  or  in 
subjection  to  the  cross,  or  other  symbols  of  divine  power.  And  the  other  meaning, 
originally,  was  the  griffin,  winged  lion  of  St.  Mark,  combination  of  best  human  and 
divine  qualities,  Immanuel.  For  decorative  purposes  there  is  no  doubt  the  griffin's 
head  became  more  eagle-like,  simply  because  a  lion's  head  is  far  from  easy  to  carve  in 
stone,  and  an  eagle's  beak  is  known  at  once  ;  the  griffin's  tail  then  became  more 
and  more  serpentine.  On  the  other  hand  Leviathan's  head  that  was  bruised  became 
more  bestial,  that  is,  less  imitating  a  natural  serpent,  and  he  got  wings  because  he  is 
a  spirit,  and  his  tail  got  twisted  up  because  he  is  an  ornament.  At  last  ignorant 
northern  workmen  really  did  not  know  the  difference  between  the  two  figures,  but 
they  liked  their  dragon  because  he  was  easy  to  draw,  effective  as  a  subject,  and  the 
most  adaptable  decorative  object  that  could  be  introduced  into  a  composition.  It  is 
questionable  whether  in  Anglian  art  of  the  earlier  period  the  dragon  was  used  as  a 
stock  subject,  at  least  not  uncombined  with  figures  that  explain  it.  Of  course  there 
must  be  differences  of  opinion  until  all  the  facts  are  collected  together,  and  the  most 
we  can  do  is  to  obtain  careful  drawings  or  photographs  of  the  stones,  studying  the 
whole  together  before  being  too  positive  as  to  dates. 


4 H 


(A  to 


63 

influence  in  its  scroll  and  plait  ornamentations,  which  are  not 
particularly  good  and  are  probably  of  the  loth  or  early  part  of  the  nth 
century,  that  is  Anglo-Danish.  The  old  Norman  windows  in  the  chancel 
were  only  discovered  in  1867,  when  the  clerestory  was  added.  The  one 
on  the  south  side  has  been  restored.  According  to  Dodsworth  the 
south  aisle  was  built  by  Sir  Simon  [Christopher  ?  the  hero  of  Flodden] 
Ward,  of  Esholt,*  and  |  Thomas)  Thwaiu-s  of  Denton,  and  it  had  a 
roof  of  flat  pitch.  In  the  south  window  of  the  choir  appeared  the  arms 
of  Ward,  arg.  a  cross  patonce,  and  they  were  also  cut  in  the  pillar 
thereof.  The  arms  of  Croker,  Wortlay,  Scargill  and  Calverley  are  also 
mentioned.  The  north  aisle,  with  the  Lindley  Chapel  at  its  eastern 
termination,  was  doubtless  also  added  a  little  before  the  Reformation 
when  the  large  east  window  was  inserted,!  although  the  date  1606  appears 
over  the  door.  But  this  must  commemorate  some  later  restoration. 
In  the  respond  of  the  .arcade,  near  the  pulpit,  is  a  piscina,  and  doubt- 
less there  has  been  a  small  altar.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  a  similar 
piscina  exists  in  the  Denton  Chapel  behind  the  Fairfax  monument. 
There  was  a  chantry  dedicated  to  Our  Lady  on  the  north  side  of  the 
church,:}:  the  incumbent  whereof  was  hired  by  the  parishioners  to  help 
and  further  the  curate  for  the  ministration,  not  only  of  divine  service, 
but  also  for  the  visitation  of  impotent  and  poor  people  within  the 
parish,  which  is  stated  in  the  Certificates  of  Chantries  at  the  Dissolution 
to  number  1000  householders  at  the  least. §  There  were  copyhold 

*  Sir  Christopher  Ward  held  the  patronage  of  Guiseley  Church  from  1496  to  the 
time  of  his  death  in  1521.  He  was  the  last  male  representative  of  this  ancient  family. 
See  Surtees  Soc.  Pub.,  vol.  xlii.,  pp.  197-811.  For  pedigree  of  Ward,  see  Flower's 
Visitation  of  Yorks.  (1563-4),  and  Slater's  Guiseley,  pp.  101-110. 

f  Out  of  certain  lands,  the  property  of  Thomas  Lindley,  Esq.,  of  Lindley,  six 
marks  were  bequeathed  by  him  in  his  will,  proved  in  1524,  to  "  fyncle  an  honeste  preiste 
for  ev'r  more  to  syng  at  my  maner  of  Lyndley,  to  pray  for  my  saull,  my  fader's 
and  moder  saulls,  and  al  Cristen  saulls,"  and  the  trustees  were  recommended  to 
appoint  Sir  William  Grene,  for  the  remainder  of  his  life,  he  being  then  testator's 
chaplain. 

Jane  Sykeream  of  Adel,  by  will  dated  1503,  gave  one  torch,  value  4'-,  to  the  church 
at  Otley.  Tlioresbv  Soc.  Pub.,  iv.,  7. 

+  13,  April,  A.D.  1529.  Bryan  Palmes,  of  Farm-ley,  to  be  buried  in  Our  Lady 
(Jhere,  and  ordered  that  his  executors  do  cause  a  stone  to  be  layd  over  him  with  the 
Image  of  the  Nativity  of  Our  Lady  set  upon  it,  and  his  own  image  kneeling  under  it. 
Tmre.  Bryan  Palmes  married  Isabel,  d.  and  co-heir  ot  Thoma>  Lindley,  and  by  this 
marriage  the  two  families  became  united  as  explained  on  the  quaint  old  bras*  in  the 
church. 

23,  Jan.,  1545.  Tho.  Johnson,  of  Lyndley,  Knt.,  to  be  buried  in  Our  Lady  Queare, 
and  willed  that  his  executors  do  cause  a  stone  to  be  layd  upon  him  with  the  image  of 
Our  Lord's  Nativity  set  upon  it,  and  an  image  of  himself  made  kneeling  under  the 
same  with  his  arms  on  four  corners  of  the  stone.  Torre. 

S  Su> tees  Soc.  Pub.,  vols.  94,  pages  230  and  395. 


64 

and  freehold  lands,  and  certain  burgage  land,  in  the  holding  of  diverse 
persons,  belonging  to  the  said  chantry,  which  was  returned  in  1548  as 
of  the  gross  yearly  value  of  ^4  8s.  8d.  and  nett  ^3  tos.  3d.  There 
was  also  an  oratory  or  donative  of  St.  Catherine  in  the  parish  church, 
"  founded  for  assistance  in  serving  the  cure,"  and  valued  yearly  at 
395.  8d.  At  this  time  (1548)  it  was  stated  that  there  were  two  persons, 
viz. :  William  Holgill,  master  of  the  Savoy  in  London,  and  Thomas 
Magnus,  not  resident,  who  find  one  curate  to  serve  the  cure,  having  no 
other  assistance  but  that  of  the  chantry  priests,  and  the  ministers  must 
have  found  the  work  somewhat  rough  and  difficult  for  the  parish  was 
very  large  and  as  then  described,  "  foule  to  traveyle  in  wynter." 


FAIRFAX   TOMB   IN   OTLEY   CHURCH. 

In  the  chancel  is  a  Norman  piscina,  and  in  the  south  wall  of  the 
chancel  is  a  small  rectangular  cupboard  or  almery,  17^  by  12  inches, 
the  use  of  which  may  be  explained  as  follows  : 

Upon  the  right  hand  of  the  higfhe  altar,  ther  shuld  be  an  almorie,  either  cutte  into 
the  \\alle  or  framed  upon  it ;  in  the  whiche  thei  would  have  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
Bodye  ;  the  holy  oyle  for  the  sicke,  and  Chrismatorie,  alwaies  to  be  locked.* 

It  is  interesting  to  note  in  the  will  of  vicar  Rood,  or  Rud  (A.D. 
1478),  that  the  ambo  was  still  in  use  in  the  church.  This  was  a  kind  of 
raised  reading  desk,  ascended  from  the  east  and  west  sides,  and  which 

*  From  the  Fardle  of  Facions,  translated  by  Wm.  Watreman  (A.D.  1555),  and  quoted 
in  Rudder's  History  of  Gloucester  p.  410. 


65 

at  a  later  period  developed  into  the  pulpit.  In  very  early  times  the 
ministers  usually  preached  from  the  altar  steps,  and  there  is  little  doubt 
but  that  the  amba  at  Otley  is  a  survival  of  its  use  in  an  early  church,  of 
which  examples  still  exist  in  the  churches  of  St.  Clement  and  St. 
Laurentius  at  Rome.  Formerly  the  chancel-arch  was  covered  by  a 
gallery,  and  had  an  organ  in  the  middle  of  it,  and  there  was  a  painting 
of  Moses  and  Aaron  on  the  wall  behind.  An  iron  ring  on  each  side  of 
the  chancel-arch  also  most  likely  supported  a  pre-Reformation  rood-loft. 
There  was  likewise  a  gallery  at  the  west  end,  erected  in  1764.  These 
unsightly  galleries  have  been  removed,  and  in  1851  the  plaster  ceiling, 
referred  to  by  the  poet  Gray,  was  also  taken  down  ;  the  roof  being 
then  raised,  and  the  clerestory  erected.  At  this  time  there  was  a  small 
bell-turret  directly  above  the  chancel-arch,  which  most  probably  con- 
tained the  sanctus  bell.  It  is  just  perceptible  in  the  illustration  on 
page  58,  shewing  the  old  aspects  of  the  church  and  its  surroundings. 

The  monuments  and  inscriptions  in  the  spacious  interior  of  the 
church  are  both  numerous  and  interesting.  The  most  notable  is  an 
altar-tomb  in  the  south  aisle,  bearing  effigies  of  Lord  and  Lady  Fairfax, 
grandparents  of  the  famous  General,  Sir  Thomas,  afterwards  Lord 
Fairfax.  The  effigies  are  cut  in  Hazelwood  stone,  the  male  figure 
being  represented  bare-headed,  with  thigh  armour  of  six  or  seven  taces, 
and  plain,  ridged  cuirass,  characteristic  of  the  Elizabethan  period.  The 
lady  is  attired  in  a  plain  robe  reaching  to  the  feet,  and  has  close-fitting 
sleeves.  A  ruff  is  worn  round  the  neck,  and  the  cap  or  head-dress  is 
worthy  ot  note,  as  this  varied  much  at  different  periods.  The  inscrip- 
tion, which  is  in  Latin,  translated,  reads : 

A.I).     1620.       SACRED    TO     THE     MEMORY 

Of  the  Hon.  Thomas  Lord  Fairfax,  Of  Kllen,  his  most  affectionate  wife, 

who,  after  he  had  discharged  the  the  daughter  of  Robert  Aske,  Esq., 

various  duties  of  war  among;  the  descended  from  the  Barons  Clifford 

French,  Germans,  and   the  Dutch,  and  Latimer,  and  mother  of  twelve 

obtained   his   dismission    from  this  children.      After  she  had  lived  an 

warfare  of  troubles,  and  after  hav-  example    of    piety    for   fifty-seven 

ing  attained  the  age  of  80  years,  years   s''e  placidly  expired,  being 

during  the    halcyon    days  of  Eng-  taken     from     her     human    to    her 

land,    he   obtained    celestial    safety  heavenly  relations  the  twenty-third 

the  first  of  May,  1640.  day  of  August,  1620. 

Beneath  the  lady  appears  this  panegyric  : 

Here  Leah's  fruitfulness,  here  Rachel's  lie.iuty, 
Here  lyeth  Rebecca's  taith,  here  Sarah's  duty. 

On  the  east  wall,  above  these  effigies,  is  a  monument  erected  to 
Sir  Thomas  Fairfax,  but  it  bears  no  inscription.  Sir  Thomas  was 
father  of  the  above  Lord  Fairfax,  and  was  knighted  by  Queen 
Elizabeth.  He  died  in  1599.  Another  commemorates  Col.  Chas. 


66 

Fairfax,  already  mentioned,  who  lived  at  Menston  Hall.  On  the  north 
side  is  a  curious  brass  plate,  depicting  the  cumbent  figure  of  Palmes, 
of  Lindley,  laid  on  a  mattress,  with  the  names  of  his  ancestors  to  the 
year  1297,  in  tree-form,  with  roundels  rising  from  him.  The  inscription 
in  Latin  tells  us  : 

No  figment  of  the  herald's  craft,  nor  venally  procured, 
These  ancient  monuments  declare  a  race  of  worth  assured. 

Within  this  Church  are  many  Lindley's  laid  : 
Here  exequies  o'er  the  last  Palmes  were  said. 
Vain  and  uncertain  was  their  tame  ;  for  when 
Has  ancestry  alone  ennobled  men. 
Yet  virtue  blooms  like  palm-trees  branching'  wide, 
And  gifted  souls  no  sepulchre  can  hide. 
Anno  D'ni  1593.* 

There  are  also  several  monuments  to  the  Fawkes'  of  Farnley,  the 
oldest  being  to  Thomas  Fawkes,  armtger,  who  died  in  1626.  One 
pays  a  fitting  tribute  to  the  memory  of  Francis  Fawkes,  Esq.,  M.P.  for 
Knaresbro',  who  died  in  1747,  and  of  Margaret,  his  wife,  one  of  the 
daughters  and  coheiresses  of  John  Asycough,  Esq.,  only  son  of  Sir 
Wm.  Ayscough,  Kt.  Another  in  the  choir  commemorates  Ayscough 
Fawkes,  Esq.,  who  died  in  1771,  unmarried,  and  another  is  to  Francis 
Fawkes,  Esq.,  of  Farnley  Hall,  who  died  July  i7th,  1786.  He  married 
Christiana,  only  daughter  and  heiress  of  Wm.  Wilkinson,  Esq.,  of 
Newall  Hall,  and  dying  without  surviving  issue,  left  the  bulk  of  his 
fortune  to  Walter  Hawksworth,  Esq.,  of  Hawksworth  Hall.  Another 
monument,  bearing  a  long  inscription,  is  dedicated  to  the  last  named. 
He  assumed  the  name  of  Fawkes,  and  was  born  at  Hawksworth  Hall 
in  1746,  removed  to  Farnley  Hall  in  1786,  which  he  rebuilt,  and  died 
there  October  i7th,  1792.  In  the  choir  is  a  marble  tablet  inscribed  to 
Maria  Fawkes,  who  died  December  loth,  1813.  There  is  a  portion  of 
an  old  memorial  tablet  (date  about  1640)  to  Wm.  Vasasour,  Esq.,  of 
Stead  Hall  in  the  township  of  Burley.  Mary  Pulleyn  was  his  sole 
heiress,  and  there  is  in  the  choir  a  tablet  erected  to  Thomas  Pulleyn, 
Esq.,  of  Burley  Hall,  who  died  in  1759  (see  BURLEY).  Another  stone 
tablet  commemorates  Sir  Robert  Dyneley,  Kt.  of  Bramhope,  who  died 
in  February,  1616.  A  small  brass  on  the  east  wall  of  the  Fairfax 
chapel  commemorates  Anne,  first  wife  of  Sir  George  Wentworth,  of 
Woolley,  who  died  in  1624.  She  was  a  daughter  of  Thomas,  Lord 
Fairfax  (see  page  65).  There  are  also  some  other  tablets  to  the  families 
of  Wood,  Lacon  (connected  with  the  Barkers  of  Otley,  from  whom 
Viscount  Halifax  descends),  Dunn,  Fourness,  Sheriton,  and  the  Rev. 

*  A  full  description,  with  illustration,  of  the  brass  appears,  in  the  Yorks.  Aich.JL, 
vol.  xv.,  pp.  36-7. 


67 

Ilt'tiry  Robinson  (vicar);  ;ilso  much  beautiful  memorial  glass  to  tin- 
several  families  of  Billam,  Wilkinson,  HartU-y,  Trnnant,  Whitaker,  and 
the  Rev.  Joshua  Hart  (vicar).  The  fine  east  window  of  five  lights  was 
erected  by  subscription.  There  is  also  a  beautiful  font  erected  in  1868  to 
the  memory  of  Mrs.  Ann  Rhodes  of  Bramhope,  by  her  son  Mr.  Francis 
Darwin,  of  Creskeld  Hall ;  likewise  some  chaste  standards  and  a  very 
handsome  brass  tablet  bearing  a  list  of  the  vicars,  the  gift  of  Mr.  Wm. 
Fison,  of  Greenholme.  In  addition  to  these  numerous  memorials  and 
objects  of  interest  in  the  church,  there  are  also  now  in  the  tower  various 
carved  stones  and  relics  illustrative  of  past  history,  to  which  I  have 
alluded  in  the  narrative  account  of  the  parish.  In  1885  the  tower 
opening  was  furnished  with  a  suitable  oak  screen  and  the  window  filled 
with  a  beautiful  design  in  stain-glass,  the  whole  cost  being  defrayed  by 
Mr.  Win.  Fispn,  of  Burley.  I  may  also  mention  that  in  his  diary  for 
the  year  1748,  Sir  Walter  Calverley,  Bt,  states  that  he  subscribed  three 
guineas  towards  the  new  bells  for  the  church,  which  (excluding  the  old 
metal)  cost  ,£230.  In  1782  eight  bells  were  obtained  at  a  cost  of 
,£384,  and  the  old  bells  were  sold  for  ^260. 

A  mediety  of  the  church  belonged  to  the  prebendary  of  South 
Cave,  who  was  rector  of  the  mediety  and  had  half  the  tithes  thereof, 
which  he  usually  let  to  farm  for  the  rent  of  ,£39  per  annum.  The 
other  mediety  was  bestowed  by  Roger,  Archbishop  of  York  (1154-81) 
with  other  benefices  on  the  chapel  of  St.  Sepulchre,  York,  and  in  1258 
Archbishop  Sewall  gave  the  presentation  to  the  vicarage  to  the  sacrist 
of  the  said  chapel  and  his  successors  for  ever,  he  to  allow  eight  marks 
per  annum  to  be  distributed  amongst  the  poor  of  the  parish.*  In  the 
taxation  of  the  tenths  of  all  ecclesiastical  benefices  granted  by  Pope 
Nicholas  IV.  in  1281  towards  the  expenses  of  an  expedition  to  the 
Holy  Land,  the  vicarage  of  Otley  is  entered  as  parcel  of  the  above 
prebendary,  and  worth  annually  ^£6  i3s.  4d.  The  value  of  the  other 
mediety  is  not  separately  stated,  being  grouped  with  the  benefices  of 
Thorp  Arch,  Collingham,  and  other  ecclesiastical  properties  of  the  said 
sacrist,  as  of  the  total  annual  value  of  ,£88  6s.  8d.  In  the  King's 
Books  the  vicarage  is  valued  at  £\$  is.  8d.,  and  in  Ecton's  Liber 
Valorum  (1728)  at ,£38  6s.  8d. 

An  imperfect  catalogue  of  the  incumbents  has  been  furnished  by 
Torre,  commencing  with  the  year  1267,  and  to  these  I  may  add  the 
occurrence  of  the  names  of  Adam  and  Henry,  chaplains  of  Otley,  who 
appear  as  witnesses  to  charters  of  grants  of  land  to  Archbishop  Gray, 

*  Sec  Raine's  Historians  of  the  Chunk  of  York,  iii.  176-180,  also  Snrt?es  S»c.  Pub. 
56.  p.   106.     See  also  "Otley  C'liaritk-s  "  pagv  71. 


68 

ca.  1220.     The  name  of  the  first  vicar  on  the  ordination  of  the  vicarage 
has  not  been  found.     The  list  is  as  follows : 

1258  —  §  1512  Laurence  Pecke  (?) 
1267  Galfridus  cle  Bridlington.  1532  William  Stanley. 

1288  William  de  Leverton.  1536  John  Barker. 

1319  Jolinde  Brantingham.  IT Richard  Oliver. 

1349  Robert  Bonfaunt.  1554  — 

—  John  Rovvcliffe.  1594  Will  Hardisty. 
1391  Richard  de  Otteley.  1596  Robt.  Thompson. 
1432  Robert  Xewall.  ||   1606  Will  Harrison. 

f  1449  James  Cams.  —  Alex.  Robertson. 

£  1452  Richard  Rudd.  1654  Joseph  Stocks. 

—  Will  de  Skelton.  1656  John  Furness. 
1478  Will  Taylour.  1662  Lancelot  Dennison. 
1502  Edw.  Mayhew.  ft  1673  Thos.  Harrison. 
1504  Richard  Walker.  JJ  1689  — 

*  The  Black  Death  was  raging  about  1350  and  half  the  clergy  in  Yorkshire 
succumbed  to  it.  There  was  probably  more  than  one  vicar  between  1349  and  1391, 
but  see  Tlwresby  Soc.  Pub.  vol.  viii.,  p.  28. 

f  6  Oct.,  1452,  Jas.  Carus,  vicar,  to  be  buried  in  the  churchyard.     Torre, 

%  4  July,  1478,  Richard  Rudd,  vicar,  to  be  buried  in  the  quire  before  the  ambone 
(pulpit,  see  page  64)  Torre. 

J5  1^32,  Laurence  Lake,  vicar,  to  be  buried  before  the  picture  of  All  Hallowes, 
within  the  High  Queare.  Torre. 

IT  Richard  Oliver  was  deprived  by  Queen  Mary.     See    Yorks.  Archl.  Jl.,  vol.  x., 

P-  95- 

|!  William  Harrison,  vicar,  was  buried  at  Otley,  Feb.  28,  1648.  On  the  outbreak  of 
the  war  he  would  appear  to  have  resigned,  and  was  succeeded  in  his  office  by  ministers 
of  Puritanical  proclivities.  The  Rev.  Thos.  Parkinson,  vicar  of  North  Otterington, 
has  courteously  placed  in  my  hands  a  MS.  volume  of  sermons  preached  at  Otley  and 
elsewhere  during  this  stormy  period,  which  once  belonged  to  the  Fairfax  family  and 
was  sold  in  the  Phillips' Collections  in  1898  (see  BuRLF.v).  From  this  volume  it  appears 
that  a  "Mr.  Ellison"  was  the  regular  minister  at  Otley  in  1641-2.  His  name  occurs  as 
preacher  on  March  2oth,  1641,  and  runs  through  the  book  till  July  17,  1642.  In  the 
Bradford  Parish  Church  registers  I  find  this  entry  among  the  burials:  "  1642,  June  4, 
Hanna,  d.  of  Mr.  Ellison,  Minister,  Otley."*  He  preached  at  Otley  on  the  following 
day.  Bradford  at  this  time  was  a  stronghold  of  the  Parliament,  and  had  ejected  its 
Royalist  vicar,  the  Rev.  Francis  Corker,  who  subsequently  joined  the  king's  garrison 
at  Pontefract,  and  had  two  horses  shot  under  him.  He  was  taken  prisoner  at  Gains- 
borough and  thrown  into  Lincoln  goal,  from  which  he  made  his  escape.  His  name 
appears  in  the  same  MS.  vol.,  under  date  13  July,  1642,  as  having  preached  at  Calverley. 
Puritan  ministers  occupied  most  of  the  local  pulpits  at  this  time,  and  the  names  of  Mr. 
Ellison,  Mr.  Cooper,  Mr.  Belwood,  Mr.  Clarkson  (of  Bingley),  Mr.  John  Furness  and 
Mr.  Clapham,  appear  as  the  preachers  at  Otley,  Weston,  and  Denton,  in  1641-2. 

" "  Alex.  Robertson  is  described  in  the  records  of  Otley  Grammar  School  for  1652, 
as  "present  incumbent  of  the  perpetual  vicarage  of  Otley."  This  was  when  Cromwell 
held  the  reins  of  government.  In  1654  Joseph  Stocks  appears  as  vicar,  and  in  1656 
John  Furness  (sec  last  note)  occurs  as  vicar. 

H'  Thomas  Harrison,  vicar,  was  buried  at  Otley,  Dec.  2ist,  1688. 

Ji  In  Oliver  Heywood's  Register  for  Coley  Chapel  there  is  entered  "Mr.  Farran, 
vicar  of  Otley,  buried  Dec.  2ist,  [1688?]  a  fat  man,  aged  52."  Cannot  this  have 
reference  to  the  Rev.  Timothy  Farrand,  who  was  minister  at  Bolton  Abbey,  and  from 
1683  to  168^,  vicar  of  Skipton,  where  he  died?  He  was  buried  at  Skipton,  Nov.  i2th, 
1685. 


69 

1692  Laurence  Hentham.  *  1786  James  Bailey. 

1701  Thomas  Dadc.  1816  Hv.  Robinson,  M.A. 

*  1708  Henry  Humphrey.  1834  Ay-rou^h  Fawkes,   M.A. 

1744  Thomas  Dawson.  £  18-7  Joshua  Hart,  15. A. 

1746  Joshua  Crowther.  i,Hf>5  S.  R.  Anderson,  M.A. 

1750  Christ.  Aleoek.  i.SS.S  R.   M.  M.  < -haneellor,  M.A. 

|   1761   Henry  WiNon.  «   i,X()o  John  T  rower,   M.A..   K.I). 

178.2  Ceorge  Hatlield.  iKoS  (I.    I'erry  H.    Frost,   M.A. 

The  registers  of  the  church  commence  with  the  year  1562,  and  the 
first  two  volumes  were  some  years  ago  transcribed  by  the  then  vicar, 
the  Rev.  S.  R.  Anderson,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  lately-formed 
Yorkshire  Parish  Register  Society  will  take  these  valuable  registers  in 
hand  with  a  view  to  their  publication.  Many  items  of  interest  may  be 
gleaned  from  them  respecting  local  families,  trades,  events,  and  a 
variety  of  circumstances  reflecting  the  manners  of  the  past  three 
centuries.  The  records  of  excessive  burials  in  certain  years,  notably  in 
1604,  when  10,000  persons  in  York  alone  died  of  an  infectious  sickness, 
shew  that  Otley  did  not  escape  this  virulent  epidemic.  Also  during  the 
stagnation  in  the  woollen  trade  after  the  Civil  Wars,  when  it  was 
ordered  that  no  one  was  to  be  buried  in  linen  as  heretofore,  but  in 
woollen,  we  find  an  instance  at  Otley  of  a  party  preferring  to  pay  the 
statutory  fine,  which  was  a  penalty  of  ^5,  half  of  which  was  given  to 
the  informer  and  the  other  half  to  the  poor  of  the  parish  where  the 
person  died.  The  great  flood  of  1673  's  a'so  referred  to  under  date 
September  nth,  when  the  Wharfe  ran  up  in  a  direct  line  to  Hall-Hill 
Well,  and  Otley  Bridge  and  most  of  the  water-mills  in  the  dale  were 
overturned  and  swept  away.  At  that  time  the  mills  at  Pool  were 
largely  constructed  of  wood,  which  caused  them  to  float,  and  as  the 
register  relates,  "carried  them  down  whole  just  like  a  ship."** 

Amongst  the  many  papers  which  I  have  examined  in  the  vestry 
there  is  a  terrier  of  glebe-lands  and  other  possessions  of  the  church  in 

*  See  Parkinson's  Lays  and  Leaves  of  the  Forest,  p.  188. 

f  A  tablet  in  this  church  commemorates  this  vicar,  who  died  Der.  14,  ij.Si.  He- 
was  the  second  son  of  Mathew  Wilson,  Esq.,  of  Eshton  Hall,  and  grandfather  of  Sir 
Mathew  Wilson,  Bart.,  M.P. 

%.  He  died  in  1816,  and  was  interred  with  his  family  at  Guiseley.  See  Yorksh. 
An  III.  Jl.,  vol.  vi.,  p.  90. 

S  For  a  biographical  notice  of  Mr.  Hart,  see  Taylor's  Supplement  to  Leeds  Worthies, 
pp.  608-9  &c. 

17  Mr.  Trower  was  elected  to  the  2ist  honorary  canonry  in  the  Cathedral  Church 
of  Ripon,  in  May  1896.  He  died  Feb.  6th,  1898,  and  was  interred  at  Farnley. 

Mr.  Frost  was  vicar  of  Christ  Church,  Upper  Armley,   Leeds,  from  iS88  to  1898. 
*  The  mills  of  Pool  are  mentioned    in  an  inquisition  taken  at   York  in    1279  as 
yielding  with  other  thing's  there  an  annual  rental  of  sos.  to  the  Lord  Archbishop  of 
York,  and  the  said  lord  is  bound  by  his  charter  to  defend  them  against  whomsoever  it 
be.  —  Yorks.  Arch.JL,  Record  Ser.  xii.,  188. 


70 

1748,  wherein  is  mentioned  the  vicarage-house,  a  barn,  and  an  orchard 
lying  on  the  north  side  of  the  house,  and  containing  by  estimation 
three  roods  of  ground.  The  old  vicarage  on  the  north  side  of  the 
churchyard  is  now  occupied  by  Mr.  Edmund  Walker,  but  the  orchard 
was  cut  down  when  Messrs.  Walker  built  their  printing  works  on  the 
site  about  forty  years  ago,  and  the  old  tithe-barn  was  pulled  down 
perhaps  long  before.  Up  to  about  twenty  years  ago  the^curfewjbell 
used  to  be  tolled  by  the  parish  clerk  daily  at  6  a.m.  in  summer  and 
7  a.m.  in  winter,  as  well  as  at  8  in  the  evening.  Formerly,  too, 
there  was  an  old  custom  in  the  town  (when  everybody  knew 
everybody  else)  of  collecting  money  on  the  occasion  of  a  death,  which 
was  either  given  to  the  bereaved  family  or  was  spent  in  a  feast  on  the 
day  of  the  funeral.  This  collection  was  known  as  the  "  dead  brief," 
and  the  sum  usually  subscribed  was  a  shilling.  The  custom  was  long 
ago  discontinued.  Another  old  custom  was  for  the  churchwardens 
with  their  rods  of  office  to  visit  all  the  public  houses  on  Sunday 
mornings  in  order  to  see  that  no  drinking  was  going  on  during  divine 
service.  They  usually  set  out  on  this  errand  before  the  reading  of  the 
first  lesson.  Mr.  Jeremiah  Garnett,  aged  81,  tells  me  he  well  remembers 
as  a  boy  going  round  with  his  father,  who  was  a  churchwarden,  when 
they  turned  out  one  "  Sailor  Tom  "  and  a  man  named  Wheelhouse, 
who  were  put  in  the  stocks  just  inside  the  church  gates. 

The  most  conspicuous  memorial  in  the  well-filled  churchyard  is  a 
facsimile  in  miniature  of  the  celebrated  Bramhope  Tunnel,  erected  as 
the  inscription  tells — 

In  Memory  of  the  unfortunate  men  who  lost  their  lives  while  engaged  in  the 
construction  of  the  Bramhope  Tunnel  of  the  Leeds  and  Thirsk  Railway,  from  1845  to 
1849.  This  tornb  is  erected  as  a  Memorial,  at  the  expense  of  James  Bray,  Esq.,  the 
contractor,  and  of  the  agents,  sub-contractors,  and  workmen  employed  thereon. 

"I  am  a  stranger  and  sojourner  with  you  ;  give  me  a  possession  of  a  burying 
place  with  you,  that  I  may  bury  my  dead  out  of  my  sight." 

"Of  those  eighteen  upon  whom  the  Tower  of  Siloam  fell  and  slew  them,  think  ye 
that  they  were  sinners  above  all  the  men  in  Jerusalem  ?  I  tell  you,  nay  ;  and  except 
ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  likewise  perish." 

There  are  other  memorials  and  epitaphs  of  general  interest  to 
those  who  chose  to  spend  a  quiet  hour  among  these  silent  records. 
One  of  the  most  interesting,  and  one  which  speaks  eloquently  for  the 
seductive  scenery  of  Otley,  commemorates  a  Dr.  John  Ritchie,  who  led 
a  hazardous  sea-faring  life  and  made  journeyings  between  many  lands. 
Having  achieved  honour  in  his  capacity  of  surgeon  at  the  siege  of 
Porto  Bello,  in  South  America,  he  at  length  retired  from  active  service, 
and  travelled  leisurely  through  many  counties  of  England  for  the 
purpose  of  fixing  on  some  beautiful  spot  where  he  might  pass  his  days 
in  peaceful  retirement.  Coming  into  the  valley  of  Wharfe,  and  being 
much  impressed  with  the  situation  and  surroundings  of  Otley,  his 


choice  was  at  once  fixed,  first  at  Bramhope,  and  soon  afterwards  at 
Otley,  where  he  passed  his  remaining  days.  He  lies  in  the  south-east 
of  the  churchyard,  and  his  epitaph  reads  : 

Here  rest  the  remains  of  John  Ritchie,  gentleman,  who  migrated  in  lull  hope  of  a 
better  life,  from  (hi-;  terraqueous  M-ene  of  fluctuating  trouble,  May  151)1,   1780. 
I'Yoin  Torrid  Climes  by  nautic  Art  conveyed 
I  sought  the  refuge  of  a  peaceful  Shade, 
Oft  in  the  tumult  of  the  broken  Wave 
I  votive  call'd,  when  Heaven  vouchsafed  to  save 
Here  all  is  calm  ;  ye  idly  vain  !  deduce 
The  pointed  moral  to  salvation's  use 
Tired  of  this  mortal  toil,  Debate  and  Strife 
I  rise  atoning-  to  triumphant  Life.* 

The  Free  Grammar  School  was  founded  in  1602,  by  will  of  Thomas 
Cave,  of  Wakefield,  and  King  James  I.  granted  a  charter  for  the  same, 
and  added  the  name  of  his  son,  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  his  arms  to 
to  the  title  and  seal  of  the  school.  The  motto  on  the  seal  is  Deum 
Pare,  Tomo  Cave  (Fear  God,  and  mind  thy  book),  being  a  punning 
allusion  to  the  founder's  name.  A  small  estate  situated  at  Landmoth, 
near  Northallerton,  was  purchased  and  afterwards  sold  for  an  annuity, 
yielding  £26  per  annum.  The  school  was  continued  till  Midsummer, 
1874,  when  it  was  closed,  as  owing  to  its  limited  endowment  and  other 
defects,  it  was  never  a  very  flourishing  institution.  In  August,  1883, 
the  premises  were  sold  for  ,£800,  and  the  trustees  have  allowed  the 
income  to  accumulate  with  the  object  of  founding  scholarships  in 
connection  with  institutions  devoted  to  higher  education,  tenable  by 
Otley  boys.  It  may  be  mentioned  that  Thomas,  Lord  Fairfax,  of  Civil 
War  renown,  was  one  of  the  trustees  of  the  old  school.  Mr.  Christopher 
J.  Nevvstead,  of  Otley,  hon.  sec.  to  the  governors,  has  in  his  possession 
an  original  minute-book,  containing  many  particulars  of  interest  relating 
to  the  school  from  its  foundation. 

The  following  particulars  of  local  charity  bequests  were  compiled 
by  the  vicar  and  churchwardens  in  1862,  from  ancient  documents  and 
other  authentic  sources. 

THE    OTLEY    CHARITIES. 

The  Thorp-Arch  Dole          £2    135.   4d. 

The  Hooton  Pagnell  Dole...         ...         ...          ...         ...     £2    133.  4d. 

The  Rectors  of  the  above-named  places  are  bound,  by  Letters  Patent  of  Queen 
Elizabeth,  dated  1588,  to  pay  out  of  the  lands,  tithes  and  profits  of  the  said  Rectories 
the  sum  of  ^5  6s.  8d.  yearly  to  the  poor  of  Otley,  for  ever.  The  Thorp-Arch  Dole  is 

*  John  Ritchie,  the  younger,  of  Otley,  linen  draper,  was  co-executor  of  the  will  of 
Benj.  Kendall,  of  Otley,  tanner,  dated  3ist  May,  1777. 

Dr.  Ritchie  left  a  son,  who  was  father  of  Joseph  Ritchie,  the  African  explorer,  and 
a  daughter  who  never  married.  She  was  one  of  the  Rev.  John  We>ley\  ino-t  intimate 
friends,  and  the  eminent  divine  bequeathed  to  her  his  gold  seal  and  other  personal 
mementos  of  his  friendship. 


72 

paid  by  Teale  and  Appleton,  Solicitors,  Leeds  ;  and  the  Hooton  Pagnell,  by  Beckett 
and  Co.,  Bankers,  Leeds.  The  Charity  Commissioners  have  awarded  to  the  poor  of 
Burley  123.  3%d.  yearly,  to  be  paid  out  of  the  above,  and  35.  6d.  out  of  the  Saxey's 
Charity.  The  above  doles  are  distributed  every  Christmas  Day. 

THE    SAXEYS*    CHARITY. 

In  the  year  1614,  Hugh  Saxey  and  Dorothy  his  wife  left  .£30,  which  was  lent 
formerly  to  young'  tradesmen  at  5  per  cent.  ;  but  in  the  year  1724  it  was  invested  in 
five  cottages  and  croft  adjoining',  called  Plum  Tree  Garth,  situated  in  Cross-Green, 
Otley.  The  interest,  3os. ,  is  paid  out  of  the  rent  of  Plum  Tree  Garth,  and  distributed 
on  the  7th  day  of  April,  or  the  Sunday  after,  as  follows  : — To  twenty  poor  women,  is. 
each  ;  the  Vicar,  8s.  ;  the  Clerk,  as. 

THOMAS  BARKER'S  CHARITY. 

Thomas  Barker,  Esquire,  by  will  dated  2nd  April,  1724,  gave  to  the  Church- 
wardens and  Overseers  of  the  Poor  of  Otley,  and  their  successors,  the  yearly  sum  of 
505.,  to  be  paid  quarterly,  free  of  all  deductions,  out  of  the  rents  and  profits  of  his 
close,  called  the  Calf-houses  Close,  in  Burley  ;  which  50*.  he  directed  should  be 
distributed  the  next  Sunday  after  his  death,  by  the  Churchwardens  and  Overseers  of 
the  Poor  of  the  town  of  Otley,  for  the  time  being",  and  their  successors,  as  follows  : — 
That  they  should  every  Saturday  night  or  Sunday  morning  buy  twelve  penny  loaves 
of  good  and  substantial  household  bread,  which  they  should  distribute  in  such 
proportions  as  they  should  think  fit,  among  the  poor  housekeepers  and  poor  of  the 
town  of  Otley  only  as  should  repair  and  come  on  Sunday  to  the  divine  service  in 
the  morning  at  the  Parish  Church  of  Otley,  and  stay  there  all  the  time  till  the  divine 
service  and  sermon  be  done  ;  and  he  charged  the  owner  of  the  said  closes  with  the 
payment  of  the  said  5os.,  and  in  default  in  payment  of  the  said  quarterly  payments  for 
six  days  after  any  of  the  days  on  which  the  same  ought  to  be  paid,  he  empowered 
the  Churchwardens  and  Overseers  of  the  Poor  for  the  town  of  Otley,  for  the  time 
being,  or  any  two  of  them,  to  distrain  for  the  same.  This  rent-charge  is  now  paid 
by  the  Rev.  Charles  K.  Armstrong,  Hemsworth,  near  Pontefract. 

PLUM-TREE    GARTH. 

This  land  was  purchased  in  or  about  1725,  with  money  supposed  to  have  belonged 
wholly  or  in  part  to  the  poor  of  Otley,  with  the  addition  of  Saxey's  charity  fund.  It 
contains  2  R.  27  I'.,  and  is  let  to  the  Surveyors  of  Highways  at  the  yearly  rental  of  £4. 

THE    BOSTON    DOLE. 

William   Jenkinson,    of    Boston,    Lincolnshire,    Alderman,   gave,    by    will    dated 

"October  i8th,  1642,  out  of  his  lands  on  the  Erode  Field,  to  the  poor  people  of  Otley, 

where  he  was  baptised,  405.  in  the  year  for  ever ;  and  403.  to  the  poor  of  Burley,  where 

he  was  born  and  brought  up,  to  be  given  them  against  every  Christmas.     The  amount 

is  received  by  the  National  Provincial  Bank  of  England,   Boston,  and  is  due  on   the 

loth  of  December.     The  amount  is  payable  by  the  Mayor  and  Corporation  of  Boston. 

MRS.  BARKER'S  CHARITY. 

The  sum  of  £10,  left  by  Mrs.  Barker  for  the  poor  of  Otley,  was  lent  to  the 
Overseers,  and  expended  by  them  in  building  the  old  Workhouse.  The  Overseers 
have  always  paid  IDS.  yearly  for  its  use. 

THE    WORKHOUSE   COTTAGES   AND   PINFOLD. 

This  property  adjoins  Plum-Tree  Garth,  and  is  let  to  the  Overseers  for  255.  a  year. 
The  cottages  were  purchased  with  Plum-Tree  Garth  in  1725,  but  the  ground  where  the 
Workhouse  stands  seems  to  have  belonged  to  the  poor  from  a  much  earlier  period. 

LAMB'S  CHARITY. 

Left  by  Mary  Hird,  of  Otley,  in  the  year  1733,  and  originally  consisted  of  £20,  or 
interest  thereon,  paid  out  of  the  rent  of  a  field  called  "  Fitters."  A  release,  dated 
1792,  was  given  to  Mr.  William  Lamb,  of  Arthington  Nunnery,  on  payment  of  the 
principal  sum,  together  with  six  years'  arrears  of  interest.  With  this  money  the  two 
cottages  at  Well-Hill,  in  Westgate,  were  built,  and  they  were  let  to  the  Overseers  at 
the  annual  rent  of  265. 


73 

THK    GARDEN    AM)    COTTAGES    IN    WIsM.AIF. 

The  garden  contains  i  K.  20  P.,  and  has  belonged  (o  the  poor  lrom  time 
immemorial.  It  i>  now  occupied  by  Kdward  Mawson,  at  the  annual  rent  ot  £$  is. 
The  cottages,  two  in  number,  adjoin  the  garden;  they  are  occupied  by  two  poor 
persons  who  have  usually  been  widows,  and  the  occupiers  receive  each  of  them  ys.  a 
year  out  ot  the  rent  ot  the  garden.  The  privilege  of  nominating  and  placing  poor 
persons  in  the  cottages  appears  to  have  been  exercised  by  a  family  now  represented 
by  two  ladies  residing  at  Aberford. 

POOR  FOLKS'  CLOSE. 

A  close  of  land,  situate  in  Burras'-Lane,  Otley,  containing  2  A.  i  R.  4  P.,  and  now 
let  to  Susannah  Hannam,  at  the  yearly  rent  of  ^13  5*.  Origin  unknown.  A  House 
in  the  Market-Place,  Otley,  occupied  by  Hannah  Heighten,  is  charged  with  the  annual 
payment  of  2S.  4d. 

CAMBRIDGE    ALLOTMENT. 

i  A.  2  R.  12  P.  of  the  moor  or  common  called  Otley  Chevin,  set  out  in  lieu  of 
common  right  in  respect  of  the  Poor  Folks'  Close  in  the  year  1783,  was  sold  to 
William  Mounsey,  subject  to  the  annual  payment  of  £2  i6s.  The  rent  is  now  paid  by 
William  Walker,  Publisher,  Otley. 

UPPER   STEEL   CROFT. 

The  house,  garden  and  land  at  the  bottom  of  Kast  Chevin,  belonging  to  the  late 
Rev.  J.  Horsfall,  are  charged  with  the  annual  payment  of  6s.  8d. 

LOWER    STEEL    CROFT,    NOW    CONSOLIDATED    ANNl'lTIES. 

The  land,  formerly  charged  with  the  yearly  payment  of  2os.,  is  situated  in  Gay 
Lane,  Otley,  and  was  redeemed  by  John  Wilkinson,  the  owner,  on  the  i^th  of  May, 
1860.  The  amount,  ,£31  125.  6d.,  was  invested  by  the  Charity  Commissioners  in  the  3 
per  Cent.  Annuities.  The  interest,  2os.,  is  due  in  July,  and  is  paid  through  the 
Yorkshire  Banking  Co.,  Otley. 

LITTLE    COMMONS. 

Land  situate  near  the  Wharfe,  in  Newall,  now  the  property  of  Thomas  Constable, 
of  Otley,  Solicitor,  is  charged  with  the  yearly  payment  of  8s. 

CLAIMLANDS. 

Two  fields,  situate  on  the  Bradford  New  Road.  The  one  on  the  north  side  of  the 
road  is  the  property  of  William  Ackroyd,  Worsted-Spinner,  and  is  subject  to  the 
annual  payment  of  33.  6d.  That  on  the  south  side  of  the  road  belongs  to  William 
Brumfitt,  Staymaker,  and  is  charged  with  25.  6d.  a  year. 

PORTMOOR. 

Three  houses  and  yard,  in  Bondgate  and  Kirkgate,  Otley,  once  the  property  of 
the  Akeds,  afterwards  of  Frances  Whitehead,  William  Moody,  and  William  Read,  and 
now  belonging  to  James  Croft,  William  Thackeray,  and  Mary  Wilson  ;  charged  8d. 
each  yearly. 

RENT-CHARGES   AND    DOLES. 

The  following  yearly  sums  are  paid  for  the  poor  of  the  Township  of  Otley. 
Information  concerning  them  has  been  given  above. 


Annual 
Payment. 


Property  Charged. 


Lower  Steel  Croft 
Little  Common,  Newall 


(  nvner  or  Person  Liable. 


John  Chadwick. 
Ditto. 


068  Upper  Steel  Croft         Joseph  Green. 

060  Claim  Lands      ...         ...         ...          ..         ...  Ditto. 

024  House  in  Market-place  ...          ...          ...          ...  John  Deighton. 

020  House  called  Portmoor  ...          ...          ...          ..  Wm.  Reed  and  others. 

o   10     o  Interest  of  _£io  left  by  Mrs.  Barker  ..          ...  Overseers  of  Poor. 

Other  particulars  concerning  these  local  benefactions  will  be  found 
in  the  Official  Report  of  the  Charity  Commission,  published  in  1894. 


74 

The  Nonconformist  interest  has  for  a  long  period  been  strongly 
represented  at  Otley,  and  there  are  several  large  and  handsome 
chapels.  The  Society  of  Friends  is  probably  the  oldest  denomination, 
dating  from  the  time  of  the  local  visits  of  George  Fox,  about  1658.  In 
1 66 1,  Christopher  Taylor,  of  Otley,  was  committed  to  gaol  for  attending 
a  meeting  at  the  house  of  Ann  Thurston,  widow,  of  Whitechurch,  in 
Bucks.*  In  an  old  minute-book  of  the  Friends  I  find  a  subscription 
list  was  opened  in  1779,  for  the  purpose  of  raising  funds  for  building  a 
Meeting  House  at  Otley. f  The  old  Meeting  House  stood  in  Cross 
Green,  and  was  pulled  down  about  1890  to  make  room  for  the  Christian 
Brethren  Chapel,  but  the  burial-ground  of  the  Friends  remains 
untouched  at  the  rear  of  the  chapel. 

The  Wesleyans  had  a  hard  up-hill  fight  before  they  were  received 
in  favour  at  Otley,  and  it  is  said  they  never  assembled  for  worship 
without  being  pelted  with  stones,  or  had  other  injury  done  to  them. 
But  the  cause  of  God,  in  whatever  outward  form,  prospers,  and  so  it  did 
at  Otley.  John  Wesley  came  here  as  early  as  1759,  and  in  his  Diary 
he  tells  us  that  he  preached  to  "  an  immense  congregation,"  and  that 
next  day  (July  i8th)  he  rode  to  Mr.  Marshall's,  at  Guiseley,  which  he 
describes  as  "  The  Capua  of  Yorkshire."  He  paid  nearly  a  score  visits 
to  Otley,  on  one  occasion  preaching  the  funeral  sermon  of  his  dear 
friend  Mr.  Ritchie,  in  the  Parish  Church,  and  his  signature  also  appears 
in  the  Parish  Registers  as  the  officiating  minister  at  a  wedding  in 
the  church  on  May  7th,  1788.  A  chapel  was  built  in  Nelson  Street, 
in  1771,  and  Wesley  occupied  its  pulpit  on  one  occasion  in  the 
following  year.  A  more  spacious  place  of  worship  was  erected  in  1826, 
and  in  1876  the  present  large  and  well-built  edifice  was  opened  (the 
foundation  stone  having  been  laid  on  March  7th,  1874,  by  Mr.  Wm. 
Lawson)  in  Boroughgate,  at  a  cost  of  ,£7,000,  and  the  old  chapel  was 
transformed  into  a  Sunday  School.  Otley,  like  Bingley,  was  originally 
in  the  Keighley  Circuit,  but  was  made  head  of  a  Circuit  in  1790, 
covering  a  very  wide  area.  The  Circuit  of  Pateley  Bridge  was  formed 
out  of  it  in  1811. 

The  Independents  are  also  an  old  and  influential  body  at  Otley, 
founded  in  the  year  1821.  Their  chapel  in  Bridge  Street  was  built  in 
1825,  and  afterwards  enlarged.}  In  1882  they  erected  spacious  Sunday 
Schools  on  a  new  site  not  far  from  the  Bridge,  and  they  are  now 
building  on  land  adjoining  [_the  schools  a  very  large  and  handsome 

*    Yorks.  County  Mag.  (1890),  p.  35,3. 

f  Vide  the  author's  Old  Bingley,  p.  189. 

£  See  Miall's  Congregationalism  in  Yorkshire  (1868),  p.  328, 


75 

chapel,  which,  when  completed,  will  he  one  of  the  finest  buildings  of 
the  kind  in  the  town  ami  district,  if  not  in  the  kingdom. 

Both  the  Baptists  and  Primitive  Methodists  owe  not  a  little  of  their 
initial  success  in  Yorkshire  to  two  natives  of  Otley.  The  Rev. 
Thomas  Dewhirst,  of  Otley,  was  one  of  the  pioneers  in  the  cause  of 
the  Yorkshire  Baptists,  and  largely  through  his  efforts  the  first  Baptist 
Chapel  at  Gildersome  was  erected  in  1707.*  The  Rev.  John  Flesher, 
of  Otley,  was  really  the  founder  of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Society  in 
\\Vst  Yorkshire,  and  preached  at  Silsden  in  1821,  where  the  first  Circuit 
was  formed. f  A  number  of  earnest  workers  succeeded  in  establishing 
an  independent  society  at  Otley,  and  in  1835  their  first  chapel  was 
erected  in  New  Market.  The  congregation  continued  to  increase,  and 
a  large  and  handsome  chapel  was  in  1874  built  in  Station  Road.  On 
May  29th,  1897,  the  foundation  stones  of  a  new  Sunday  School  were 
laid  near  the  chapel  by  Mr.  J.  Crossfield,  Mrs.  Hanson,  Mrs.  E. 
Walker,  and  the  School  Superintendent,  Mr.  J.  Simpson. 

The  Methodist  New  Connection  (founded  in  1799)  built  a  chapel 
in  Westgate  in  1856,  and  the  Christian  Brethren  have  a  very  neat 
edifice  on  Cross  Green,  built  about  ten  years  ago  on  the  site  of  the  old 
Friends'  Meeting  House,  the  latter  being  "nothing  more  than  an  old 
house  fitted  up  about  thirty  years  since  for  their  meetings.";}: 

The  Roman  Catholics  are  also  a  numerous  body  in  Otley, 
consequent  upon  the  large  immigration  of  Irish  peasantry  and  others 
into  England,  many  ot  whom  settled  in  this  neighbourhood  after  the 
terrible  Irish  famine  of  1847.  A  year  or  two  subsequently  it  was  found 
necessary  to  erect  a  church,  and  the  present  beautiful  edifice  dedicated 
to  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary  and  All  Saints  was  then  built  almost 
wholly  at  the  cost  of  Mr.  Thos.  Constable  and  his  sister.  Through  a 
long  and  arduous  period  of  28  years  the  Rev.  Father  Kelly  served  the 
mission  at  Otley  as  "priest,  educationist,  and  friend,"  and  in  June, 
1898,  he  was  the  recipient  of  a  congratulatory  illuminated  address 
presented  by  the  congregation,  together  with  a  purse  containing  ^70. 

The  town  presents  many  other  interesting  and  suggestive  features, 
the  old  streets  doubtless  existing  on  the  same  lines  as  formed  soon 
after  the  Anglo-Saxon  conquest.  Kirkgate,  Westgate,  Clapgate  (now 
unfortunately  changed  to  Court  House  Street  )§,  Bondgate,  Borough - 

.Sir   liilhrou£-h   and    Ha*lam's   History  of  the  liaptist  Church  nt  Cil<iers<rg}t'. 

I    .S'<v  the  author'*  Old  /ii>iffle\\  pp.  209-10  (with  portrait  of  Mr.    Flesher). 

:;:    \'ule  MS.   History  of  Wharfedale  (1807). 

is  C'lapgate  is  no  great  distance  from  the  river  and  an  old  ford-house  may  have 
*tood  somewhere  in  the  vicinity.  The  A-S.  claf>pan  means  to  clap,  and  clepan,  to  call 
or  cry  out  as  a  warning-  to  travellers  that  the  waters  are  out.  I  have  met  with  thi?. 
Clapgate  near  becks  and  rivers  in  other  parts  of  Yorkshire. 


76 

gate,*  and  perhaps  Gay  Lane,  being  the  oldest  thoroughfares,  and  it  is 
in  these  localities  we  must  look  for  vestiges  of  "old  Otley."  There  is 
now  however,  probably  no  building  in  the  town,  save  the  Parish 
Church  and  the  Black  Bull  inn,  that  can  claim  an  antiquity  of  three 
centuries.  The  oldest  domestic  tenement  I  have  noted  is  a  low  mullion- 
windowed  cottage,  dated  1637,  on  Cross  Green  (where  the  markets 
were  held  a  century  ago)f  ;  but  there  are  a  couple  of  low  thatched 
cottages  near  the  Manor  House  inn,  that  are  equally,  if  not  more 
ancient — the  last  remaining  links  between  ancient  and  modern  Otley. 


OLD   THATCHED   COTTAGE,   OTLEY. 

A  century  ago,  the  Court  and  Sessions  were  held  in  the  old  Assembly 
room  in  Bondgate,  which   was  afterwards  used   as  a  ball-room,   and 

*  Perhaps  A-S.  Rurgeat.  There  is  a  Burgate  Street  in  Canterbury,  and  Mr. 
Maitland  thinks  it  may  imply  the  existence  of  a  principal  house  (Domesday  and 
Beyond,  p.  190).  Though  Mr.  W.  H.  Stevenson  ( ' Eng.  Hist.  Review,  xii.  489)  suggests 
a  "manorial  burh,  with  or  without  jurisdiction." 

f  They  were  then  removed  to  the  present  Market  Place,  where  the  old  brick  and 
timber  "Shambles"  stood  up  to  1867.  The  first  Fortnight  Fairs,  established  in  1806, 
were  then  held  in  the  present  Market  Place;  as  many  as  400  beasts  and  1,300  sheep 
being  at  that  time  brought  together  on  the  Friday  Fair  Days, 


77 

occasionally  a  band  of  strolling  players  would  engage  it  for  a  night's 
entertainment  of  the  bucolic  mind.  In  and  about  Bondgate  (where  the 
servile  tenants  of  Norman  times  no  doubt  resided)  we  have  a  number 
of  old  inns,  the  Wool  Pack,  Bowling  Green,  Ai'ig  of  Be/Is,  A'osf  and 
Crown,  Cock  and  Hot  tie,  and  Junction,  all  being  within  a  bow-shot. 
There  are  also  other  old  hostelries,  the  White  Swan,  the  Half  Moon* 
Black  Bull,  a  picturesque  Tudor  building,  having  some  coeval  timber 
and  plaster  panels  at  the  east  end,  where  the  upper  chamber  is  corbelled 
out  in  characteristic  ogee.  Then  there  is  the  old  White  Horse  (rebuilt), 
a  sign  based  on  that  ancient  emblem  of  luck  which  figures  in  the  old 
Teutonic  mythology,  and  whose  counterfeit  presentment  appears  on  the 
cliffs  of  Kilburn,  among  the  Hambleton  Hills,  which  may  even  be 
seen  on  a  fine  day  from  the  heights  of  Otley  Chevinf.  Gay  Lane  joins 
Bondgate,  and  as  the  road  and  name  appear  to  be  very  old  I  should 
say  they  originated  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  geh,  gd  (pron.  go],  modern 
German  geh  (pron.  gay)  gehen  (to  go),  as  to  walk,  a  walk-way,  a  path, 
whence  A-S.  gewaenan,  to  turn,  to  wind,  as  this  old  Gay  Lane  does  in 
true  Anglo-Saxon  fashion,  towards  old  Leeds  road,  and  an  ancient  right 
of  way  from  it  up  to  the  Chevin  still  exists  close  to  the  east  side  of 
Webster's  Leather  Works.  I  shall  not  pretend  to  trace  the  root  of  the 
word,  but  it  is  not  unlikely  it  may  have  to  do  with  the  familiar  words 
gee-Mj>,  uttered  to  horses  when  required  to  urge  their  pace.  The  latter 
exclamation  is  undoubtedly  as  old  as  the  Roman  occupation;  the 
Roman  soldiers  inciting  their  short  stalwart  ponies  to  quicken  their  step 
whilst  dragging  the  military  stores  and  baggage,  would  exclaim  ur-gee; 
and  the  same  word  is  even  continued  by  carters  and  others  at  the 
present  day,  from  the  Latin  urgeo,  to  go  on. 

There  are  some  very  old  roads  about  Otley,  that  over  the  Chevin 
used  by  the  Romans  travelling  between  Ilkley  and  Adel  being  no 
doubt  the  most  ancient.  It  was  also  by  way  of  the  Chevin  that  the 
Abbot  of  Selby  travelled  to  Skipton  in  1345,  as  recorded  a  few  pages 
back.  There  were  no  carriages  then;  one  must  either  ride  on  horseback 
or  walk,  for  it  was  not  until  the  sixteenth  century  that  waggons  were 

*  At  the  Half  Moon  in  Westgate  the  Otley  Lodge  of  Freemasons  (one  of  the  oldest 
in  the  world)  used  to  hold  its  meetings  about  1760.  The  first  Yorkshire  Lodge  of 
which  there  is  any  authentic  record  was  constituted  at  Scarborougli  on  August  27th, 
1729,  as  No.  59.  See  Riley's  Yorkshire  Masonic  Lodges. 

\  White  horses  were  much  esteemed  in  former  times,  and  are  often  referred  to  by 
old  authors  as  types  of  pure  breed.  The  old  nursery  rhyme  "Ride  a  cock-horse  to 
Banbury  Cross,  to  see  a  fine  lady  ride  on  a  white  horse,"  may  also  be  instanced. 
Chaucer's  knight,  Sir  Topax,  speaks  of  "Jennets  of  Spaync  (of  Arabian  extraction) 
that  be  so  wyght,"  and  in  an  inventory,  dated  142,3,  of  Archbishop  Bowet,  who  often 
resided,  as  stated,  at  Otley,  white  horses  are  specially  named.  See  also  the  author's 
Riclimondshir?  p.  465. 


73 

used  for  travelling  purposes,  and  then  but  occasionally.  Stage-coaches 
began  to  run  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  but  then  only  in 
and  about  London.  The  roads  almost  all  over  the  country  were 
dangerously  narrow  and  wretchedly  dirty,  so  much  so  that  when  Queen 
Elizabeth  rode  into  the  city  of  London  from  her  residence  in  Greenwich 
sh§  was  obliged  to  place  herself  on  a  pillion  behind  her  Lord 
Chancellor.  There  was  also  another  danger,  and  that  was  from  the 
numbers  of  highwaymen  and  even  highwaywomen  who  lurked  about 
the  roads,  and  especially  after  the  closing  of  the  monasteries,  when 
thousands  fell  on  a  loose  wayfaring  life.  One  of  these  daring  banditti 
was  the  well-known  "  Mall  Cut-Purse,"  her  proper  name  being  Mary 
Frith  (born  1585)  who  was  as  bold  as  any  Turpin,  a  capital  rider, 
fearless,  and  dexterous  with  sword  and  pistols.  She  was  a  staunch 
Royalist,  and  used  to  dress  in  male  attire,  in  which  guise  we  are  told 
she  once  surprised  and  took  200  gold  jacobuses  from  our  Wharfedale 
veteran,  Lord  Fairfax,  the  Parliamentary  General,  on  Hounslow  Heath  ! 

For  centuries  all  traffic  from  Newcastle  and  the  north  in  the  direction 
of  Manchester,  Liverpool,  and  Wales  came  through  Ripon  and  Otley, 
and  then  up  the  Chevin  to  Yeadon  and  Bradford  ;  the  present  road  by 
Hollins  Hill  between  Shipley  and  Otley  being  comparatively  recent. 
An  Act  tor  alterations  in  the  latter  road  was  obtained  in  1830.  In 
1754  an  Act  was  procured  for  repairing  and  widening  the  road  from 
Leeds  to  Otley  and  Skipton,*  which  was  afterwards  superseded  by  the 
present  excellent  highway  through  Bramhope,  now  so  much  frequented 
by  cyclists,  and  in  a  former  generation  by  the  coaches.  But  it  was  not 
without  considerable  opposition  that  the  first  wor<c  of  improving  and 
maintaining  these  roads  was  accomplished.  The  turnpike-riots  of 
1753-54  indeed,  read  like  a  romance  in  these  days  when  no  one 
disputes  the  value  of  a  well-kept  highroad.  But  in  June  1753,  gangs 
of  men  and  lads  sallied  out  from  Otley,  Carlton,  and  Yeadon,  and 
along  with  similar  mobs  from  other  places  about  Leeds,  proceeded  to 
demolish  the  toll-bars  and  commit  much  other  damage.  Ultimately 
the  importance  of  the  projected  turnpikes  was  recognized,  if  not  the 
justice  of  the  tolls,  and  between  1762  and  1774  no  fewer  than  45 2  Acts 
were  passed  for  the  improvement  of  highways  throughout  the  kingdom. 

Otley  has  many  reminiscences  of  these  bustling  times  though  it 
was  never  a  great  coaching  centre.  The  main  driving  road  to  the 
north  ran  by  way  of  Doncaster,  Ferrybridge,  and  Wetherby,  while  the 
coaches  from  Wakefield  and  Leeds  to  the  north,  travelled  along  the 
road  through  Harewood  to  Ripley  and  Ripon.  Passengers,  however, 
from  London  to  Kendal,  came  up  to  Ferrybridge  and  thence  to  Leeds, 

See  Leeds  Intelligence',  July  iith,  1755. 


79 

( Hley,  and  Skipton.  At  Otley  the  coaching-houses  in  1800  were 
ording  to  Gary's  Itinerary,  the  Black  Horse  and  the  White  Horse, 
the  latter  being  the  sign  of  the  well-known  old  coaching-houses  at 
York,  Tadcaster,  Leeds,  and  Bingley.  In  1807  the  famous  Union 
(  o;u:h  entered  the  road  from  Leeds  and  Kendal,  passing  through  Otley, 
and  continued  running  till  1843,  being  then  the  oldest  coach  that 
passed  through  the  town.  A  second  Leeds  and  Kendal  flyer  was  the 
well-known  True  Briton,  which  rattled  through  Otley  for  a  long  period, 
namely,  from  1816  to  1843.  There  was  also  another  Union  coach  which 
started  running  in  1842,  between  Leeds,  Otley,  and  Ilkley.  In  May, 
1822,  the  Defiance  commenced  running  between  Leeds  and  Ilkley 
three  times  weekly,  and  went  by  way  of  Otley,  stopping  at  the  White 
Horse.  It  lett  the  road  in  1838.  The  Commerce,  which  superseded  the 
Hark  Forward  coach  in  1833,  ran  for  two  short  years  between  Leeds 
and  Ilkley,  doing  the  journey  in  a  couple  of  hours,  and  returning  from 
Ilkley  in  the  evening.  It  went  three  times  a  week,  but  its  route  was  by 
Yeadon,  Guiseley,  and  Burley,  and  not  through  Otley.  This  coach 
was  succeeded  by  the  British  Queen,  which  performed  the  same  journey 
and  by  the  same  route  from  1835  to  1841. 

In  1865,  when  the  railway  was  brought  to  Otley,  there  were  1047 
turnpike  trusts  in  England  and  Wales,  with  20,189  miles  of  road 
supported  by  tolls.  At  this  time  there  was  a  general  suspension  of  the 
tolls,  though  it  was  not  till  November  ist,  1873,  tnat  the  toll-bars 
between  Leeds  and  Otley  were  abolished,  while  those  on  the  Leeds  and 
Harrogate  Road  were  freed  on  January  ist,  1867.  The  Leeds  and 
Ilkley  railway  was  opened  on  August  ist,  1865,  and  the  line  from 
Bradford  by  Esholt,  connecting  Ilkley,  Otley,  and  Harrogate,  was 
completed  and  opened  in  1875.  Mr.  Jeremiah  Garnett,  of  Wharfeside, 
Otley,  who  is  now  in  his  82nd  year,  took  a  very  active  part  in 
promoting  the  extension  of  the  railway  to  Otley,  and  had  many 
interviews  with  the  North-Eastern  directors ;  but  Mr.  Fawkes  had 
strong  objections  to  the  line  passing,  as  it  was  proposed,  through  Caley 
Park.  A  petition  was  then  got  up  in  Otley  and  forwarded  to  Mr. 
Fawkes,  but  he  declined  to  peruse  it  and  wrote  a  spirited  answer,  to 
which  Mr.  Garnett  replied  in  a  skillfully  prepared  pamphlet.  I  may 
add  that  when  the  Otley  Local  Board  was  formed  in  1864,  Mr.  Peter 
Garnett  was  its  first  chairman,  and  when  he  died  in  1865,  Mr.  James 
Duncan  succeeded  him  but  retired  the  following  year.  The  above 
mentioned  Mr._J_eremiah  Garnett,  son  of  Mr.  Peter  Garnett,  was  then 
appointed  chairman  and  ably  discharged  the  duties  of  that  office  for  15 
years,  and  retired  from  the  Board  in  1885. 

The  old  Wharfedale  capital,  though  now  easily  accessible  by  rail 
and  road,  has  always  been  to  a  great  extent  isolated  from  the  main 


8o 

arteries  of  public  traffic.  To  the  summer  day  rambler,  who  loves  a 
quiet  country  town  full  of  bygone  memories,  combined  with  the  charm 
of  outward  rusticity,  this  must  prove  an  attraction  rather  than  otherwise, 
yet  he  must  not  expect  to  find  the  town  a  veritable  ''Sleepy  Hollow,'' 
basking  in  the  sunshine  of  unchanging  ways  and  wholly  dependent  as 
of  old  upon  its  agricultural  renown.  The  old  mother  town  has  put 
forth  her  arms,  and  the  sinews  of  her  sons  have  shewn  their  strength. 
This  is  amply  evidenced  by  the  expansion  of  her  trade,  and  in  the 
increase  of  inhabitants;  the  population  of  the  township  being  now 
about  8,000.  Every  acre  of  the  parish  is  now  productive ;  a  large 
portion  of  the  waste  having  been  taken  in  by  Act  of  Parliament  in 
1777.  At  the  end  of  last  century,  when  the  population  of  Otley  did 
not  exceed  2,400  souls,  a  manufactory  of  cotton  was  established  on  the 
Wharfe ;  another  for  weaving  calicoes  was  carried  on  by  a  Mr. 
Merryweather,  which  together  drew  near  a  hundred  workmen  from 
other  places.  Later  the  wool-combing  and  worsted  spinning  trades 
were  introduced,  and  the  mills  of  Messrs.  Duncan,  Barraclough  &  Co., 
and  Wm.  Ackroyd  &  Co.,  now  employ  a  large  portion  of  the 
inhabitants.  Tanning,  currying,  and  leather-dressing,  printing  (intro- 
duced in  1813),  and  last  but  not  least  the  paper-cutting  machine  and 
printing  machine  trades  have  also  been  established.  The  last  mentioned 
has  in  fact  long  been  regarded  as  the  staple  industry  of  the  town,  in 
which  nearly  2,000  hands  are  at  present  employed.  Messrs.  Dawson 
\\vre  practically  the  founders  of  this  prosperous  industry,  which  is  still 
carried  on  by  them,  as  well  as  by  other  well-known  firms,  whose 
turn-out  is  almost  world-wide.  In  former  times  there  was  also  a  good 
business  done  in  the  bit,  stirrup,  and  silver-plating  trades,  carried  on 
principally  at  the  old  Silver  Mills,  near  the  East  Chevin. 

It  appears  there  were  cloth-weavers  in  Otley  long  before  the 
Parliament  of  Edward  III.  passed  in  1328  the  famous  Measure  and 
Assize  of  Cloths,  and  the  export  duty  on  wool  was  raised  to  4o/-  per 
sack.  In  some  places,  however,  the  trade  was  in  the  hands  of  certain 
firms  who  had  bought  a  monopoly  from  the  lords  of  manors,  to  the 
exclusion  of  others  who  could  not  engage  in  it  without  license  of  the 
lord  or  the  monopolist.  This  was  the  case  in  the  extensive  liberty  of 
the  Duchy  of  Lancaster,  where  certain  members  of  a  family  named 
Walker,  in  Bradford,  had  early  in  the  i4th  century  secured  the  trade 
of  dyeing  and  fulling  wholly  to  themselves,  so  that  no  one  might  "  carry 
on  the  said  trades,  neither  within  the  town  of  Bradford,  nor  within  the 
liberty  of  the  lord  Duke  of  Lancaster,"  without  pain  or  penalty  of 
heavy  fines.  The  over-stretching  of  cloth  upon  tenters  and  other 
means  by  which  the  measure  of  cloth  was  apparently  increased,  led  to 
the  passing  of  the  Act  above  mentioned.  The  rolls  for  fifty  years 


Si 

previously  arc  tiill  ot  indit  tnn-nts  against  Yorkshire  manufacturers  tor 
these  fraudulent  practices,  and  amongst  them  under  the  year  1275, 
appear  the  names  <>t  Thomas  de  Abberford  and  Robert  Doune,  of 
Otley,  \vhieh  shews  that  the  woollen  trade  was  established  at  ( Kley  in 
the  i 3th  century. 

There  were  also  walkers,  or  fullers,  in  Otley  in  1378,  and  very 
probably  the  old  street  still  known  as  Walkergate  marks  the  scene  of 
these  early  labours  in  the  local  cloth  trade.  I  have  not  learnt  that  the 
present  Otley  family  of  Walker  are  descended  from  this  stock,  yet  the 
grandfather  of  Mr.  Edmund  Walker,  now  of  the  Grange,  was  in  the 
worsted  trade  as  a  spinner  and  woolstapler  at  the  old  Silver  Mills  last 
century,  and  his  son  William,  who  was  born  in  1795,  laid  the  foundation 
of  the  extensive  business  now  existing  under  the  style  of  Win.  Walker 
and  Sons. 

The  town,  as  I  have  said,  is  steadily  increasing  in  importance  and 
enterprise,  and  now  issues  two  large  weekly  newpapers,  the  Wliarfedale 
and  Airedale  Observer  and  the  Wharfedale  and  Airedale  Standard,  both 
of  which  are  very  widely  circulated.* 

But  Otley  has  always  been  pre-eminently  an  agricultural  town, 
and  its  great  farming-club,  known  as  the  "  Wharfedale  Agricultural 
Society,"  is  the  oldest  existing  society  in  the  United  Kingdom.!  Jt 
appears  to  have  originated  trom  a  visit  paid  in  1804  to  a  model  farm 
at  Holkham,  Norfolk,  owned  by  Mr.  Coke,  afterwards  Lord  Leicester. 
The  visitors  were  Mr.  Jonas  Whitaker,  J.P.,  of  Greenholme,  Burley-in- 
Wharfedale,  and  the  Rev.  Jas.  Annitage  Rhodes,  J.P.,  of  Horsforth 
Hall,  who  took  a  great  interest  in  all  matters  appertaining  to  farming, 
and  the  result  of  their  inspection  was  the  suggested  formation  of  a 
society  in  Wharfedale  for  the  encouragement  and  improvement  of 
agriculture.  The  matter  was  brought  betore  Sir  Henry  Carr  Ibbetson, 
Bart.,  of  Demon  Park,  who  entered  heartily  into  the  project.  The  late 
Mr.  Henry  Whitaker,  son  of  the  above  Mr.  Jonas  Whitaker,  who  died 
September  i7th,  1850,  gives  a  lengthy  account  of  the  origin  of  the 
society,  and  I  cannot  do  better  than  quote  from  what  he  says  : 

My  father  went  to  Den  ton  Park  and  related  to  Sir  11.  C.  Ibbetson  all  particulars  of 
the  interesting'  visit  to  Holkham.  The  baronet  quite  concurred  vvitli  my  father's  views, 
and  it  was  arranged  betwixt  them  that  the  largest  landed  proprietors  in  Wharledale 
should  be  waited  on,  and  the  particulars  of  the  scheme  should  be  put  before  them. 

11  Another  Otley  paper  was  tin  Yorkshire  Comet,  first  issued  on  Saturday,  March 
i bth,  1844  (\Vm.  Walker),  now  defunct  and  rarely  met  with. 

I    "  In   our   progress  through    the    West     Riding    we    could    not    learn,    alter    the 

minutest  enquiry,  thai  a  single  society  subsisted  for  the  improvement  of  agriculture. 

We   heard  of  three    that    were    formerly    established   for   that    useful   purpose,    vi/.,  at 

Sheffield,  Uawtry,  and  Doncaster,  but  these  for  some  time  past  have  been  discontinued." 

Robert  Hrown  in  the  AYiwio  of  Agriculture  in  the  MY.\Y  Riding  (ifyt)),  p.  _>^o. 


82 

This  was  done,  and  the  result  was  the  meeting  which  was  held  at  the  White  Horse 
Hotel,  Otley,  on  Jan.  2nd,  1806,  when  the  first  agricultural  society  was  formed,  the 
rules  drawn  up,  and  it  was  decided  that  there  should  be  two  shows  held  annually,  the 
first  on  Friday  in  Easter  week,  and  the  other  in  the  last  week  of  September.  Sir 
Henry  Carr  Ibbetson  was  appointed  president ;  Lord  Harewood  and  Walter  Fawkes, 
Esq.,  of  Farnley  Hall,  vice-presidents. 

There  were  two  shows  held  yearly  for  the  first  seven  years,  and  since  then  only 
one,  in  the  springtime  of  the  year.  The  first  show  was  held  on  Friday  in  Easter  week, 
1806.* 

Mr.  Whitaker,  whose  father  was  one  of  the  vice-presidents  of  the 
society  in  1812,  afterwards  proceeds  to  say: 

In  my  recollection  there  used  always  to  be  a  dinner  held  in  a  long  room  up  .some 
stairs  at  the  White  Horse  hotel  at  Otley,  on  the  day  of  the  Wharfedale  Agricultural 
Show.  The  chaigc  for  each  person  was  gs.  or  gs.  6d.,  and  this  included  the  fee  for  the 
waiter,  one  bottle  of  wine,  beer,  &c.  At  these  meetings  some  influential  person  acted 
as  chairman,  such  as  Vasasour  of  Weston,  Fawkes  of  Farnley,  Lascelles,  Geo.  Lane 
Fox,  or  Sir  John  Johnston,  and  in  1844  Lord  Morpeth  ;  but  the  person  who  acted  more 
generally  in  that  capacity  was  the  Rev.  James  Armitage  Rhodes,  and  it  used  to  be 
delightful  to  listen  to  the  appropriate  language  in  which  he  addressed  the  successful 
candidate  who  had  gained  a  prize.  He  gave  two  prizes  for  ploughing,  in  which  he 
took  great  interest,  especially  about  the  boys. 

I  well  remember  on  one  of  the  occasions  going  to  the  field  to  watch  the 
competitors.  One  of  them  was  a  little  lad  scarcely  sufficiently  tall  to  reach  the  stilts  ot 
the  plough,  and  although  he  had  to  guide  his  team  with  reins  as  well,  he  carried  the 
head  prize  in  the  premium  amongst  the  youngsters,  so  he  did  the  year  following,  and 
the  third  year  as  well.  The  Rev.  J.  A.  Rhodes  had  made  particular  enquiries  about 
him,  and  found  that  his  father  was  dead,  that  he  lived  with  his  grandmother,  or  his 
widowed  mother,  and  that  he  bore  an  excellent  character,  so  he  took  great  interest  in 
him.  I  shall  never  forget  the  kind  address  he  made  about  him  when  he  presented  the 
prize.  He  spoke  so  pathetically  and  in  such  telling  language,  that  tears  were  coursing 
down  the  cheeks  of  many  persons  who  were  at  the  table.  The  second  time  that  this 
boy  gained  the  prize,  Mr.  Geo.  Lane  Fox  was  chairman,  he  mounted  the  lad  on  the 
table  and  then  exclaimed.  "Look  at  him  ;  it  is  of  such  lads  that  Old  England  may  well 
boast,  and  of  such  we  may  well  be  proud!" 

Many  other  incidents  and  anecdotes  might  be  related  of  these 
famous  annual  gatherings  at  Otley,  but  more  particularly  of  former 
times.f  I  have  heard  the  following  amusing  story,  which  is  a  fair 
sample  of  many  more : 

The  chief  officer  of  a  Yorkshire  yeomanry  regiment  while  congratulating  one  of 
the  troops  on  its  appearance,  made  a  stirring  allusion  to  the  medals  worn  by  some 
armv  veterans  in  the  ranks.  One  of  the  men,  a  native  of  Wharfedale,  afterwards  went 
home  in  a  very  thoughtful  frame  of  mind,  and  next  morning  he  came  on  parade  with 
several  medals  on  his  breast.  Said  the  officer  :  "I  didn't  know  you  had  been  in  the 
regulars."  "No,  I  ain't,"  said  the  man.  "Well,  how  about  the  medals  then,  my  good 
fellow,  they  can't  be  yours?"  The  man  promptly  answered :  "Can't  they!  Aye  but 
they  be.  My  old  coo  won  'em  all  at  Otley  Show." 

*  Mr.  Cobley  says  that  for  several  years  before  this  shows  had  been  held  by  a  few 
farmers  in  the  district 

f  An  almost  forgotten  old  local  farm  book  is  entitled  "The  Complete  Cow  Leech 
or  Cattle  Doctor,  being  a  treatise  on  the  Disorders  of  Horned  Cattle."  By  J.  C. 
Knowlson,  who  has  been  fifty-seven  years  in  full  business,  "twenty  at  Skipton  and 
twenty-three  at  Otley."  Printed  and  published  at  Otley  by  T.  F.  Bristow,  Kirkgate. 
1820.  Demy  8vo,  120  pages.  Price  4/6 


The  annual  shows  were  formerly  held  in  April  but  now  take  place 
in  May.  and  on  May  5th  to  ytli,  1898,  the  centenary  show  was 
celebrated,  when  the  entries  numbered  3,903,  and  the  prizes  offered 
amounted  in  value  to  ,£1,625.  In  the  November  following,  Mr. 
Ayscough  Fawkes,  of  Farnley  Hall,  who  had  been  president  of  the 
society  since  1871,  was  presented  with  a  handsome  illuminated  address. 

Many  a  present  or  bygone  event  and  custom  might  still  be 
discoursed  upon  had  space  permitted.  There  were  the  old  horn- 
blowing,*  Easter  and  wedding  customs,  statute  hirings,  Valentine's  Day 
(Otley  used  to  be  a  leading  emporium  in  the  manufacture  of  valentines), 
Christmas  and  New  Year's  masquerades,  riding  the  stang  (the  effigy 
being  usually  burned  in  Cross  Green),  bull-baiting,  cock-fighting  (in 
which  the  neighbouring  gentry  took  great  delight)!,  badger  baiting, 
otter  hunting,  and  the  old  fun  of  May  Day.  No  one  knows  how  long 
Otley  has  commemorated  the  ushering  in  of  blooming  May,  but  certain 
it  is  there  was  a  May  pole  here  in  the  days  of  the  Merry  Monarch,  and 
one  of  the  finest  May  poles  in  England  still  graces  the  old  Cross  Green. 
I  have- mentioned  the  Anglo-Saxon  gallows-tree  at  Otley,  and  among 
the  many  attributes  of  that  tree-of-sacrifice  was  the  May  pole — in  some 
places  in  Germany  it  is  a  living  tree — associated  in  aftertimes  as  the 
freer  of  evil  and  the  emblem  of  gladness  and  plenty.^  But  the 
traditions  of  May  indeed  are  mostly  those  of  evil — 

Married  in  May, 
Ye'll  soon  decay, 

is  one  old  proverb,  older  even  than  Christianity.  It  is  mentioned  by 
Ovid.  It  was  written,  prophetically  enough,  on  the  gates  of  Holyrood 
Palace,  when  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  married  Bothvvell. 

But  to  turn  to  our  Otley  May  pole.  The  present  shaft  is  the 
fourth  that  has  been  erected  on  the  site  within  the  last  century.  Its 
predecessor  was  shattered  by  lightning  on  June  i2th,  1871,  but  the 
people  of  Otley  having  a  wise  regard  for  old  traditions,  raised  the 
present  pole  in  the  year  following,  making  the  occasion  a  general 
holiday,  that  will  long  be  remembered.  It  was  the  ist  of  May,  1872, 
when  farmers  from  the  country  and  folks  from  the  town,  traps, 
waggonettes,  and  people  afoot  came  into  Otley  by  hundreds  and 

*  Among  the  Phillips  MSS.  (No.  -10143)  are  abstracts  of  Deeds,  £c.,  relating  to  the 
close  ot  land  called  Bugle  lug,  situate  on  the  Hurley  side  of  Otley,  between  West  Bu.-k 
Lane  and  the  Wharte. 

I  Sir  Walter  Calverley,  of  Ksholt,  writes  in  his  diary  :  "8  May  (1699).  1  went  to 
the  Cocking*  at  Otley,  whither  Sir  Walter  Hawkesworth  came  the  night  before  and 
stayed  there  three  days.  We  lost  the  main  battell  to  Mr.  Vavasour."  But  on  July 
jjiid,  1700,  they  won  the  main  at  Otley  against  Mr.  Vavasour. 

£  See  Keary's  Vikings  in.  Western  Chnstendvm  (1891),  pp.  36-39. 


thousands.  The  day  was  bright,  sunny  and  warm — a  perfect  May- 
Day — and  the  old  town  looked  its  brightest,  gay  with  flags,  banners, 
and  festoons.  Everybody  seemed  in  the  best  of  humour,  and  when 
Mr.  Fisher,  chairman  of  the  celebration  committee,  got  up  and 
exclaimed  :  "  I  declare  this  May  pole  well  and  truly  raised,"  a  ring  of 
applause  came  from  the  assembled  multitude  and  the  band  of  the  Otley 
Engineer  Volunteers  struck  up  a  lively  tune.  A  grand  procession  was 
then  formed,  headed  by  Superintendent  Croft  and  a  detachment  of 
police,  followed  by  the  band  and  the  charming  May  Queen  (Miss 
Croft)  attired  in  flowing  white  garments,  wearing  a  gilded  crown,  and 
mounted  on  a  handsome  pony  gaily  caparisoned.  Then  followed  a 
wherry  bearing  a  platform  which  held  thirty-three  young  girls,  all 
dressed  in  pure  white  and  carrying  garlands  of  flowers.  Next  came 
the  fire  engines  of  the  town,  the  carts  and  horses  of  the  Leeds 
Corporation  (which  were  at  that  time  engaged  at  the  new  reservoirs  in 
the  Washburn  valley),  a  number  of  other  vehicles  and  horses  with  their 
riders  followed,  each  decorated  with  streaming  ribands  and  banners. 
As  the  procession  passed  through  the  principal  streets  and  approached 
the  Parish  Church,  a  hearty  and  merry  peal  rang  from  its  time-stained 
tower  (O  !  old  church  bells,  what  notes  of  gladness  and  of  sadness  have 
ye  not  oft  proclaimed  !),  and  the  mind  was  insensibly  drawn,  as  one 
linked  the  present  with  the  past,  to  that  silent  God's  Acre  where 
thousands  of  all  ages  lay  entombed,  who  had  in  their  day  and 
generation  participated  in  the  dear  old  May  Day  rejoicings.  The 
following  beautiful  poem  pertinently  recalls  those  happy  scenes,  and 
is  from  the  pen  of  the  late  Mr.  Thomas  Gregory,  a  native  of  Sheffield, 
who  was  called  to  his  rest  only  a  few  months  ago.  He  was  father  of 
Mr.  Ernest  E.  Gregory,  of  Bingley,  whose  photographs  of  the  old 
crosses  in  Otley  Church  are  engraved  in  this  work. 

LINES     WRITTEN     ON     MAY     DAY. 
The  breeze  is  fresh,  the  morning-  keen  ; 

You'd  hardly  deem  it  merry  May  ; 

And  yet  the  apple  trees  are  gay, 
And  all  the  fields  a  tender  green. 
They've  crown'd  the  little  maiden  queen, 

And  made  her  beautiful  with  flowers, 

Just  moulded  under  April  showers, 
With  gleams  of  sunshine  shot  between. 
And  she  is  lovlier  to-day 

For  all  that  has  been  done  and  said 

For  all  the  blossoms  garlanded, 
And  all  the  innocent  display. 
And  when  her  eyes  are  dim,  and  gray 

Her  locks,  this  picture  will  appear 

In  colours  marvellously  clear, 
In  bright  and  brilliant  array  ; 


85 

And  she  will  tell  ot  one  ran-  Ma\  , 

\Vhen  (Hit    upon  the  village  J^rci  I), 

They  ^athered  to  proclaim  her  queen 
'Mill  rustic  spurt  ami  holiday. 
Sweet  maid  !  and  yet  a^ain  most  -Wect  ! 

Fair  (lower!   by  Beauty's  soil  lips  kissed  ; 

1   would  not  have  your  charms  increased  ; 
They're  tor  the  proud  occasion  meet  : 
Finnish  that  the  same  skilful  Hand 

Hath  fashion'd  each  to  suit  the  hour, 

The  maiden  innocent  ;   the  llower 
All  heart  could  wish  tor,  or  demand  ! 

These  happy  events  are  now  things  of  the  past,  and  one  can  but 
reflect  with  fond  regret  that  this  should  be  so,  especially  when  other 
historic  customs  are  fast  dying  out,  and  little  remains  to  picture  in  our 
humdrum  daily  lives  the  Merry  England  of  long  ago, 

A  whole  volume  might  be  written  on  the  old  Otley  families  from 
the  Conquest  forward,  many  of  whom  are  now  extinct  in  the  parish 
and  many  have  got  dispersed  in  various  and  distant  places.  The  old 
local  family  called  De  Otley,  which  I  have  already  mentioned,  was  an 
influential  one  in  bygone  ages,  some  being  freemen  of  the  city  of 
York  in  the  i3th  and  i4th  centuries.  A  John  Irenside,  of  Otley, 
mercer,  (a  mercer  at  this  time  meant  a  dealer  in  all  kinds  of  silk,  linen, 
cloth  and  canvas  goods,  but  the  Act  of  1378  restricted  mercers  dealing 
in  nothing  but  "small  goods,"  such  as  haberdashery  and  silk  wares), 
also  appear  in  the  list  of  freemen  of  York  in  1333.  The  subsidy  rolls  of 
Edward  II.  and  Edward  III.,  and  the  poll-tax  lists  of  Richard  II.,  also 
furnish  us  with  the  names  of  many  local  families,  some  of  whom  are 
represented  in  the  parish  at  this  day.  Coming  down  to  more  recent 
centuries  we  find  among  the  names  in  the  parish  registers,  those  of 
Fairfax  (of  Civil  War  fame),  Fawkes  (of  Farnley),  Ward,  Thackray 
(ancestral  connections  no  doubt  of  the  great  novelist)*,  Clarkson, 
Wilkinson,  Dawson,  Walker,  Maude,  Barker,  fThomas  Barker  in  1724 
left  money  to  the  poor  of  Otley),  Barber  (James  Barber,  of  Otley,  voted 
at  York  in  1741),  Clapham,  Jennings,  Stubbs  (most  likely  connected 
with  the  Stubbs  of  Nidderdale,  ancestors  of  the  present  Bishop  of 
Oxford),  Benson  (Dr.  Wm.  Benson,  of  Otley,  1778,  of  the  same  family 
as  Robert  Benson,  ist  Lord  Bingley),  Garnet!,  Fairbank,  Longfellow 
(of  the  same  West  Riding  stock  as  the  eminent  poet).  The  subsidy 
roll  for  1523-4  mentions  Richard  Longfellow,  of  Otley,  who  contributes 
2os.  or  more  than  double  anyone  else  in  the  town.  The  Longfellows 
were  in  Otley  in  the  i4th  century,  and  in  the  tower  of  Otley  Church 
there  is  a  tomb-slab  of  this  time,  bearing  an  incised  cross  and  a  partly 

*  See  the  author's  \idderdale,  page  385. 


•  Kr 
C^J. 


86 

obliterated  inscription  commencing  :  Orate  p'  a'ia  [IIen]rici  (or  Ric[ard]i) 
Langfelafw].  It  is  evidently  the  oldest  existing  memorial  of  the  famous 
American  poet's  ancestors.  There  were  Longfellows  also  at  Ilkley,  a 
little  higher  up  the  valley,  and  at  a  sale  of  old  oak  furniture  at  the 
late  Mr.  Buckley  Sharp's,  in  Bradford,  May  1882,  a  carved  oak  chest 
from  an  old  farm-house  at  Ilkley  was  offered,  which  bore  the  following 
inscription  :  — 

We  once  were  two  we  two  made  one, 

We  no  more  two  through  life  be  one, 

while  on  the  first  panel  was  cut:     ION  LONGFELLOW  AND  MARY  ROGKKS  WAS 

MARRYED   YE   TENTH    DAYE   OFF   APRIL   ANNO    DM.     1664. 

Then  we  have  in  the  Otley  Registers,  Curtis  and  Hird.  Christopher 
Hird,  of  Otley,  married  Mary,  daughter  of  Robert  Leach,  who  built 
in  1695,  (the  year  she  was  born),  the  picturesque  ivy-clad  house  at 
Micklethwaite,  in  the  parish  of  Bingley.  ' 

Mr.  Justice  Barker,  of  the  family  above  mentioned,  resided  in 
Kirkgate,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  a  family  of  considerable  distinction. 
One  of  his  daughters,  Caroline,  married  Charles  Wood,  of  Bowling 
Hall,  an  eminent  naval  officer,  who  died  in  1872  of  wounds  received  in 
action.  He  was  grandfather  of  Sir  Chas.  Wood,  Bart,  33  years  M.P. 
for  Halifax,  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  in  1846,  First  Lord  of  the 
Admiralty  from  1855  to  1858,  and  subsequently  Secretary  of  State  for 
India.  He  was  created  Viscount  Halifax  in  1866.  Mrs.  Wood  (nee 
Barker)  was  also  aunt  to  the  late  Win.  Busfeild  Ferrand,  Esq.,  M.P.  of 
St.  Ives,  Bingley;  her  daughter,  Caroline,  having  married  in  1800,  Wm. 
Busfeild,  Esq.,  of  Upvvood,  who  for  14  years  was  M.P.  for  Bradford.* 

Mr.  Robert  Tennant,  formerly  M.P.  for  Leeds,  was  born  at  Otley 
in  1828,  his  mother  being  a  daughter  of  Mr.  James  Shaw,  also  a  native 
of  Otley.  He  was  the  second  son  of  Mr.  John  Tennant  Stansfield 
Tennant,  J.P.,  D.L.,  of  Chapel  House,  Kilnsey,  of  a  family  long 
resident  in  the  Craven  Dales.  Mr.  Tennant  in  addition  to  his 
Parliamentary  duties,  in  past  years  took  an  active  part  in  other  spheres 
of  public  life  and  held  many  important  offices.  He  took  an  especial 
interest  in  the  Sardinian  question  as  it  affected  international  trade,  and 
wrote  a  volume  entitled  Sardinia  and  its  Resources,  published  in  1885, 
and  dedicated  to  the  King  of  Italy.  He  also  wrote  a  valuable  little 
book  entitled  British  Jamaica  and  its  Resources,  based  on  a  personal 
visit,  which  contains  a  map  and  a  chapter  on  the  Venezuela  boundary 
question.  He  was  at  one  time  a  very  large  landowner  in  his  native 
county,  being  possessed  ofjiye  or  six  estates  in  Yorkshire,  including 
three  or  four  parishes  in  the  North  Riding.  In  Scotland,  too,  he  owned 
an  extensive  estate  at  Auchnashellach,  in  county  Ross,  where  he  once 

*  See  the  author's  "Old  Bingley." 
v  \A-V/\/A/AA4*>*_>v-    CH/wt^,    - 


8? 

entertained  tin-  Print  <•  of  Wales  lor  a  couple  of  days'  shooting;  and  his 
possessions  also  included  a  large  property  at  Rose  Hall,  Sutherlandshire, 
and  the  Ballochulish  Slate  Quarries.  In  conjunction  with  Sir  Theodore 
Martin  he  promoted  the  Callander  and  Ohan  Railway,  and  was  himself 
one  of  the  directors.  Mr.  Tennant.  who  died  in  March,  1900,  married 
in  1850,  Henrietta,  daughter  of  the  late  Mr.  Jeremiah  Oarnett,  of  Otley 
and  Manchester.  She  died  May  9th,  1899,  and  was  interred  at  Forest 
Church,  Horsham,  Sussex. 

Otley  claims  to  be  the  birth-place  of  another  eminent  worker  in 
the  public  service,  namely  the  Rt.  Hon.  Wm.  Lawies  Jackson,  now 
Conservative  M.P.  for  Leeds.  He  is  the  son  of  the  late  Mr.  Wm. 
Jackson,  of  Leeds,  of  the  well-known  firm  of  tanners  and  leather 
merchants,  and  was  born  at  Otley  in  1840.  He  has  filled  several 
important  Government  offices,  including  the  Chief  Secretaryship  for 
Ireland.  Though  striving  with  untiring  xeal  in  the  cause  of  his  party, 
Mr.  Jackson  is  by  no  means  blind  to  other  interests,  and  his  liberal 
and  broad-minded  views  are  recognized  by  all  parties. 

Mr.  John  Hope  Shaw,  also  a  native  of  Otley,  was  one  of  the  most 
useful  and  prominent  men  in  the  city  of  Leeds  in  recent  times.  He 
was  uncle  to  Mr.  Robert  Tennant,  M.P.,  and  was  three  times  Mayor  of 
Leeds  (1848-53).  He  was  worthily  honoured  by  laying  the  foundation- 
stone  of  the  Leeds  Town  Hall  on  August  tyth,  1853,  which  noble 
building  was  completed  in  1858  and  opened  by  Her  Majesty  the  Queen 
on  September  yth.  Mr.  Shaw  died  in  1864,  aged  72.  The  Shaws 
were  an  old  race  of  surgeons,  and  I  have  already  had  occasion  to 
mention  Dr.  Thomas  Shaw,  whose  little  book  on  Wharfedale  was 
published  in  1830.  Dr.  Shaw  in  his  old  age,  developed  a  good 
deal  of  dry  humour,  and  I  have  been  told  that  on  one  occasion  he  was 
very  anxious  to  obtain  a  human  skeleton,  and  it  was  ascertained  that  he 
was  prepared  to  pay  a  fair  price  if  one  could  be  obtained.  Three  or 
four  well-known  Otley  topers  resolved  that  the  doctor's  wish  should  be 
gratified.  After  getting  their  skins  full  they  began  to  wager  who  should 
be  the  corpse.  The  bad  luck  fell  on  one  Toby  Ramshavv,  a  local 
lamplighter.  Toby,  in  a  very  fuddled  condition,  was  put  into  a  sack 
and  told  not  to  move  a  muscle  or  they  would  lose  the  reward.  It  was 
late  at  night  when  they  arrived  with  their  burden  at  the  doctor's.  The 
doctor  met  them  in  the  surgery  and  seeing  the  sack  containing  the 
"corpse"  realized  their  business  at  once.  They  sat  down  and  for  a  few 
moments  they  looked  blankly  and  silently  around  as  if  they  w^ere  at  a 
funeral.  The  doctor  thought  he  saw  a  slight  movement  of  the  bag  and 
in  order  that  he  might  be  fully  convinced  ordered  his  servant  to  bring 
the  men  a  bottle  of  whisky.  They  drank  it  leisurely  and  Toby  did  as 
he  was  bid  and  never  stirred  a  limb,  But  at  last  when  the  doctor  called 


for  a  second  bottle,  poor  Toby  could  stand  the  incarceration  no  longer, 
and  boldly  forcing  his  way  out  of  the  sack,  stood  up  and  exclaimed  with 
an  oath,  "I  mun  hev  my  sup,"  when  there  was  rare  merriment  in  which 
the  shrewd  old  doctor  joined  heartily. 


DR.   JOHN    SPENCE. 

At  the  same  time  as  the  Shaw's,  the  Spences  were  surgeons  at 
Otley.  Dr.  John  Spence  is  still  well  remembered,  and  had  more  than 
a  local  reputation.  He  was  a  very  skilful  operator,  and  was  the  first 
man  in  England  who  performed  the  operation  of  excision  of  the  elbow 
joint.  His  son  Dr.  Wm.  M.  Spence,  was  for  many  years  connected 


89 

with  the  old  Ilkley  Bath  Charity.  Many  other  native  worthies  might 
IK  mentioned  whose  names  are  written  on  the  scroll  of  fortune  or  of 
tame.  Spare  cannot  be  found  for  all.  Mr.  John  McLandsborough, 
whose  death  occurred  on  February  24th,  1900,  was  born  in  the  town  on 
May  3rd,  1820.  He  became  a  civil  engineer  and  railway  contractor, 


D«,    RICHARD   GARNETT,   C.B. 

and  was  proficient  in  many  sciences,  being  C.E.,  F.R.A.S.,  F.R.M.S., 
F.G.S.,  &c.  His  father,  Mr.  Andrew  McLandsborough,  for  some 
time  kept  a  draper's  shop  in  Kitkgate. 

Probably  one  of  the   best  known  Otley   worthies   was   the_Rey. 
Richard    Garnett,   who    died    in    London    in    1850,    and    belonged    to 


J-j-ft/^rx^' 

Vww-  vb+Jj  <* 

is^e<^ti*^\  "d  y^.    ^^-nn 

9° 

the  Otley  family  which  has  been  for  a  long  period  connected  with  the 
old  Paper  Mills.  Mr.  Garnett  from  being  usher  in  a  school  at  Southwel 
rose  to  the  important  position  of  keeper  of  printed  books  in  the  British 
Museum.  He  was  a  distinguished  linguist  and  possessed  an  exceptionally 
wide  knowledge  of  English  and  foreign  literature.  The  same  post  was 
eventually  obtained  by  his  son  Richard  Garnett,  L.L.D  ,  C.B.,  whc 
resigned  the  position  early  in  1899,  after  forty  years  honourable  service 
in  our  great  National  Library.  Dr.  Garnett,  who  is  descended  from  the 
Garnetts  of  Faweather,  near  Bingley,  is  a  vice-president  of  the  Librarj 
Association  of  the  United  Kingdom,  and  has  contributed  numerous 
Important  articles  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  and  Dictionary  oj 
National  Biography.  He  is  also  a  linguist  and  poet  of  excellent  repute 
and  author  of  several  volumes.  In  1862  he  published  Relics  of  Shelley 
and  in  1880  and  1882  Selections  from  Shelley's  Poems  and  Letters.  Dr 
Garnett's  knowledge  of  poetry,  literature  and  languages,  is  so  extensive 
that  he  may  almost  be  regarded  as  a  modern  Milton.  He  wrote  the 
important  biographies  of  Carlyle,  Emerson,  and  Milton,  in  the  Grea, 
Writer  series,  and  more  recently  has  contributed  the  article  on  Professoi 
Blackie  for  Kaye's  Leading  Poets  of  Scotland.  For  other  informatioi 
respecting  the  Garnett  family,  see  Annals  of  Yorkshire  vol.  2,  page  46c 
and  vol.  3,  page  339,  &c.  A  portrait  of  Dr.  Garnett  accompanies  thi; 
notice,  and  for  which  I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  W.  M.  Jackson,  of  th< 
"  Library  of  Famous  Literature,"  London. 


CHAPTER    IV. 


AROUND  OTLEV. 

Delightful  scenery  and  associations — Bishop  Tunstall's  praise— Local  geological 
formation— View  from  the  Chevin — Otley  Bridge— Newhall  Old  Hall — Local 
families— Interesting  relics  at  Xewall  Hall— Otley  Union — A  centenarian. 

HARMIXGLY  situated  in  a  broad  and  rural  vale  is  the 
old  Saxon  town  of  Otley.  Proudly  rise  the  rocky  heights 
of  the  Chevin,  forming  a  noble  background  to  the 
scene,  otherwise  the  aspects  of  the  place  can  scarcely 
be  described  as  romantic ;  they  are  rich  and  pastoral. 
When  the  hawthorn  is  in  bloom,  and  the  golden  meadow-bolts  or  lush 
marsh-mat i golds  gild  the  greening  pastures,  and  the  lark's  voice 
is  heard  from  afar  in  the  bright  sky ;  while  quickening  field  and 
woodland  echo  the  winsome  notes  of  the  cuckoo  and  all  Nature  is 
filled  with  a  joyous  hope,  then  is  the  time  to  view  the  beauties  of  this 
historic  vale.  Here  around  us  are  swelling  pastures,  hedgerows  and 
woodlands,  winding  old  lanes  full  of  life  and  joy  to  the  naturalist  ; 
noble  parks  with  maivy_  a  grand  old  mansion, — the  type  ot  English 
aristocratic  life,  on  which  Old  England  founds  her  great  traditions, — 
ancient  farmsteads  standing  amid  their  paternal  acres,  the  nurseries  of 
many  a  strong  and  broad-minded  dalesman  who  has  honored  his  family 
and  the  State,  while  many  a  hoary  fane  with  dark  stone  tower  marks 
the  story  of  life  in  the  past.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  this 
ideal  English  landscape,  which  poet  and  painter  have  so  much  praised, 
should  be  pronounced  by  the  good  Bisjiop  Tunstall,  who  visited  Otley 
in  the  time  of  j-Ienry  VIII.,  to  exceed  in  beauty  everything  he  had 
seen  during  his  travels  in  France  and  Italy. 

In  order  that  we  may  obtain  a  comprehensive  idea  of  the 
surrounding  country  let  us  first  climb  to  the  summit  of  the  Chevin 
(925  feet).  This  we  may  do  by  way  of  Gay  Lane,  a  thoroughfare  that 
I  have  already  suggested  as  being  a  very  ancient  egress  of  the  town, 
Otley  people  are  proud  of  their  Chevin,  and  well  they  might  be 
considering  it  has  a  human  history  that  dates  back  full  two  thousand 
years,  while  the  view  from  it  is  absolutely  unrivalled  in  this  part  of  the 
kingdom.  I  have  explained  the  ancient  Cymric  origin  of  the  name 
(pronounced  Keven  in  Wales)  and  there  is  also  a  Chevin  in  Derbyshire, 
of  like  meaning.  Now  let  me  say  something  of  its  still  earlier  history. 


92 

of  the  rocks  that  compose  it.  We  are  here  on  the  millstone-grit 
formation  which  runs  along  the  Pennine  Chain  from  Derbyshire  ;  its 
lowermost  bed,  the  Kinderscout  Grit  when  it  reaches  the  neighbourhood 
of  Skipton,  dips  in  a  south-easterly  direction  under  the  Third  or 
Middle  Grit  of  Addingham  and  Ilkley  Moors.  Northwards  the  Kinder 
Grit  crosses  the  Wharfe  and  occupies  all  the  high  ground  around 
Beamsley  and  the  uplands  about  Denton,  Askwith  and  Stainburn  to 
the  conspicuous  eminence  of  Almes  Cliff.  The  Third  Grit  forms  the 
grand  scenic  escarpment  on  the  south  side  of  the  Wharfe  from 
Addingham  onwards  to  Otley,  and  is  overlaid  by  the  Rough  Rock 
which  forms  the  summit  (at  over  1300  feet)  of  Rumbalds  Moor.  The 
intrusion  of  this  bold  massive  grit  into  Wharfedale,  which  in  places  has 
almost  the  hardness  and  character  of  granite,*  is  the  cause  of  the 
deflection  of  the  river  from  a  north  and  south  direction  to  an  easterly 
flow  towards  Harewood  and  York.  This  Third  Grit,  forming  the  ridge 
of  Otley  Chevin  and  locally  known  as  the  "  Bramhope  Grits,"  keeps 
along  the  south  side  of  Wharfe  eastwards  as  far  as  Harewood,  and  at 
the  old  historic  castle  of  Harewood  it  turns  northward,  and  then 
making  a  south-easterly  clip  is  lost  beneath  the  magnesian  limestone 
to  the  west  of  Collingham.  The  regular  sequence  of  these  rocks, 
rising  from  the  Kinderscout  Grit  to  the  Rough  Rock,  or  topmost  bed  of 
the  millstone  grit  series,  proves  that  the  valley  at  Otley  is  not  formed 
on  a  line  of  fault,  but  is  a  valley  of  denudation,  worn  down  by  the  slow 
action  of  rain,  frost,  and  the  atmosphere, — in  a  word  it  is  the  result  of 
Time.  The  beds  of  shale  form  a  base  for  the  drainage  of  rain-water, 
and  there  are  several  excellent  springs  on  east  Chevin  ;  the  water 
being  collected  in  two  small  reservoirs  from  which  for  a  long  period 
it  was  conveyed  into  the  town  by  means  of  elm-wood  pipes. 

Since  the  tumbling  of  the  rocks  brought  about  the  sudden 
alternations  of  sun  and  frost  at  the  close  of  the  Ice  Age,  little  change 
must  have  taken  place  in  the  appearance  of  this  grand  old  Chevin 
down  to  thirteen  hundred  years  ago,  when  the  keen-eyed  Celt,  in  his 
garment  of  deer-skin, f  kept  a  sharp  look-out  for  the  pirate  Saxon  who 
seized  the  native  tilth,  and  pitched  his  tent  in  the  valley  below,  and 
save  for  some  enclosure  and  planting,  the  Chevin  remains  almost  the 

"  Much  of  this  rock  has  been  sent  to  London  for  foundation  work.  It  was 
employed  for  the  foundations  of  the  present  Houses  of  Parliament. 

f  Perhaps  Pelstone  Crag-,  situated  on  the  estate  of  Peter  Musgrave,  Esq.,  at  the 
east  end  of  Chevin,  has  something-  to  do  with  ancient  kins-dressing-,  as  pcell,  \-< 
A.-Saxon  for  a  pelt  or  skin,  though  its  presence  in  Celtic  territory  rather  suggests  an 
origin  in  the  Celt,  pil  (pile),  a  defence  or  fortress,  whence  the  peel-towers  of  later  days. 
Chaucer,  in  the  House  of  Fame,  uses  the  word  pell  in  this  sense.  The  crag  here  forms 
a  precipitous  face  with  a  tract  of  saddle-shaped  land  at  the  top,  naturally  well  adapted 
for  a  defensive  site. 


93 

s;une  to-day.  During  the  threat  of  the  French  invasion  a  century  ago 
it  was  our  of  the  chosen  beacon-signals,  and  a  beacon  was  erected  in 
1803,  which  was  to  receive  its  warning  from  Bi-;misk-\  la-aeon  and 
send  it  on  to  Scarcroft  Moor  and  Almes  Cliff. 

What  a  glorious  view  is  revealed  as  we  stand  here  on  a  fine  day, 
and  how  tiny  seem  the  houses  and  passing  carriages  in  the  roads  far 
below  !  Sometimes  at  starlight  I  have  stood  on  this  old  British 
promontory  and  looked  down  into  the  Saxon  town  and  have  been 
reminded  of  the  night-view  from  the  Swiss  Righi  on  the  distant  lights 
of  Lucerne.  Xo  one  passing  over  the  Chevin  could  forbear  admiring 
its  grand  far-reaching  view.  Even  Thoresby,  writing  in  1702,  at  a 
time  when  little  interest  was  taken  in  scenery,  speaks  of  the  "noble 
prospect"  from  this  point.  The  poet  Gray,  in  1769,  admired  the  scene, 
too;  while  Edward  Dayes,  in  his  Tour  Through  Yorkshire  (1825)  says 
"  my  mind  revelled  in  perfect  voluptuousness,  and  all  the  faculties  of 
my  soul  were  absorbed  in  the  contemplation  of  this  most  delectable 
spot."  Some  idea  of  the  varied  prospect  may  be  gathered  when  it  is 
stated  that  not  less  than  2,000  square  miles  are  embraced  within  the 
area  of  vision.  Looking  almost  due  east  we  may  sight  the  twin-towers 
of  York  Minster  twenty-five  miles  away,*  whilst  with  the  aid  of  a 
field-glass  the  famous  White  Horse  of  Kilburn  on  the  Hambleton 
Range  (seven  miles  south-east  of  Thirsk)  may  be  plainly  descried, 
thirty-two  miles  distant  as  the  crow  flies.  For  this  interesting  object 
you  should  look  to  the  east  of  the  Beckwithshaw  Road,  about 
one-fourth  of  the  distance  between  that  road  and  the  Great  Almes  Cliff. 
To  the  south-east  the  clock  of  the  Leeds  Town  Hall,  and  the  Grammar 
School  and  spires  on  Woodhouse  Moor  may  be  detected,  while  more  to 
the  east,  looking  down  the  luxuriant  vale,  the  noble  mansion  of 
Harewood  and  the  long  Arthington  Viaduct  are  conspicuous.  Turning 
to  the  west  we  have  the  heathery  heights  of  Rumbalds  Moor,  with  the 
singular  cone-like  summit  of  Flasby  Fell  beyond  Skipton.  Further 
north  rim  the  craggy  fells  of  Craven,  terminating  in  Great  Whernside, 
above  Coverdale,  which  is  frequently  covered  with  snow  in  late  spring, 
and  for  this  reason  may  be  readily  distinguished  when  all  the 
surrounding  hills  are  clear.  Below  us  through  the  far-extending  vale 
gleams  in  the  bright  light  the  silvery  Wharfe,  while  here  and  there  an 
ancient  family  seat — the  homes  of  Vavasour,  Fawkes,  and  Fairfax — 

*  The  late  Mr.  John  McLandsboroug-h  informs  us  that  when  he  was  a  boy  he 
ascended  the  Chevin  in  the  night  time  in  company  with  his  father,  both  bearing-  lanterns, 
in  order  to  sec  York  Minster  on  lire,  which  was  distinctly  seen.  The  rhnirof  the  noble 
minster  had  been  purposely  set  on  lire  by  the  lunatic  Jonathan  Martin,  and  by  midnight 
ol  February  jnd,  (829,  the  whole  of  this  portion  of  the  building  was  atlame  to  the  roof. 
The  loss  sustaineil  amounted  to  ^65,000. 


94 

with  many  another  stately  mansion   and  homestead,  appears  in  the 
wide  and  beautiful  landscape. 

After  this  entrancing  view  we  shall  certainly  be  tempted  to  know 
more  of  the  surrounding  neighbourhood.  Let  us,  then,  descend  to  the 
bridge  over  the  Wharfe,  which  we  may  cross,  and  either  proceed  to  the 
left  to  Weston,  Askwith  and  Denton  (five  miles),  or  to  the  right  in  the 
direction  of  Farnley  and  Leathley  (two  miles),  or  northwards  to 
Lindley  and  "  Washburn's  lovely  valley  "  (three  miles).  Then,  on  this 
side  of  the  Wharfe  we  are  also  within  easy  walking  distance  of  Burley 
(two  miles),  Poole  and  Bramhope  (three  miles),  the  present  and  bygone 
life  of  each  of  which  will  be  duly  chronicled. 

Otley  Bridge,  as  we  learn  from  Leland,  was  a  stone  structure 
before  the  Reformation,  and  doubtless  a  bridge  has  existed  here  from 
before  the  Conquest  for  the  convenience  of  those  parishioners  living  on 
the  north  side  of  Wharfe,  who  had  to  attend  the  church  and  markets 
at  Otley.  The  frequency  of  floods,  however,  and  the  long  distances 
many  had  to  travel,  no  doubt  led  to  the  erection  of  the  church  at 
Weston,  in  the  tenth  or  early  part  of  the  eleventh  century,  followed  by 
the  Norman  one  at  Farnley.  But  the  bridge  continued  to  exist,  as 
appears  by  the  order,  stated  by  Tanner,  that  the  lepers  of  the  twelfth 
century  Otley  Hospital  (see  p.  50)  had  to  keep  the  bridge  in  repair. 
In  Anglo-Saxon  times  the  Church  was  responsible  for  the  maintenance 
of  bridges,  but  on  the  See  of  York  founding  the  Hospital  at  Otley  that 
obligation  seems  to  have  been  relegated  to  the  lepers.*  This  must 
have  been  a  serious  and  eventually  unsupportable  tax  on  the  Hospital 
owing  to  the  unavoidable  liability  to  injury  and  destruction  by  floods. 
A  more  substantial  erection  seems  to  have  been  proposed  early  in  the 
thirteenth  century,  for  I  find  that  Archbishop  Gray  in  1228  granted  an 
indulgence  of  thirteen  days  to  those  who  would  contribute  to  the 
building  of  the  bridge,  in  the  same  form  as  that  granted  for  the  bridge 
at  Elvet.f  The  Archbishops,  aided  by  private  benefactions  maintained 
the  bridge  until  the  sixteenth  century,  when  the  first  Act  of  Parliament 
was  passed  for  the  repair  and  maintenance  of  roads  and  bridges  of 
public  utility.  In  1673,  as  before  quoted  from  the  Otley  registers,  the 
bridge  was  swept  away  by  the  heaviest  flood  on  record.  Doubtless 
the  eastern  half  of  the  present  handsome  bridge  of  seven  arches,  with 

*  See  Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws  and  Instittites  of  England  \ Record  Commission,  1840) 
vol.  L,  page  432  &c. 

-(  In  wide  parishes,  such  as  were  common  in  the  nest  of  Yorkshire,  the  need  of 
bridges  was  much  felt,  yet  we  find  many  privileged  places  were  exempt  from 
maintaining  them.  "No  city  nor  free  town  shall  be  distrained  for  making  good  any 
bridge  which  is  not  by  custom  and  law  so  kept  up  from  the  time  of  Henry  I."  Magna 
Charta,  cap.  xv. 


95 

its  projecting  ribs  beneath,  is  the  structure  next  erected,  which    was 
afterwards,  about  1756,  widened  on  the  west  or  up-side. 

A  little  beyond  the  bridge  and  we  arrive  at  the  ancient  little 
village  of  Newhall,  which  is  mentioned  along  with  Farnley  in  the 
Nomina  Villarum  of  1315,  as  the  property  of  the  Archbishop  of  York, 
In  1378  there  were  about  a  score  families  living  here.  The  old  Hall, 
now  a  farm-house,  is  believed  to  have  been  originally  a  peel-tower, 
though  the  oldest  or  central  part  of  the  present  four-story  building  is  no 
doubt  a  foundation  of  one  of  the  Kighleys  of  about  the  time  of  the 
Reformation.  There  is  a  large  pointed  doorway  into  the  cellar,  while 
the  arches  of  the  fire-places  are  depressed ;  one  on  the  third  floor 
having  moulded  spandrils.  The  uppermost  chamber-roof  is  open  to 
the  rafters  and  the  windows  throughout  are  debased  Gothic.  The  east 
and  west  wings  of  seventeenth  century  date,  were  rebuilt  in  1827  out  of 
the  old  material.  We  have  no  knowledge  when  the  first  house  was 
built,  but  in  2ist  Edward  I.  (1292)  Wilelmus  filius  Falcasius,  alias 
Fawkes,  is  described  as  of  Newall,  near  Otley,  but  how  long  it  remained 
with  this  family  is  uncertain.  Robert  de  Newall  was  vicar  of  Otley  in 
1432  and  died  in  1449.  Early  in  the  sixteenth  century  it  was  in 
possession  of  Thomas  Kighley,  who  married  a  daughter  of  John 
Vavasour,  of  Weston,  living  in  1505.  About  this  time  there  was 
living  at  Xewhall  a  family  named  Craven,  and  in  1520  the  will  was 
proved  ot  a  John  Vicars,  iconomus,  of  Newhall,  near  Otley.  Laurence 
Kighley  succeeded  to  the  ownership  of  Newhall,  and  his  son,  Edmond 
Kighley,  who  married  Anne,  daughter  of  William  Goldsborough, 
inherited  the  property.  According  to  Torre,  John  Kighley,  of  Newall, 
gent,  died  in  Feb.  1542,  and  was  buried  on  the  north  side  of  Otley 
churchyard,  near  his  ancestors.  Edmond  appears  to  have  left  Newhall 
and  resided  at  Pool,  where  he  died  in  1602,  leaving  a  son,  Laurence 
Kighley,  who  was  born  in  1586,  and  inherited  his  father's  lands.  In 
1590  Newhall  had  been  transferred  to  the  Procters,  and  here  we  are 
able  to  link  the  descent  of  the  property  with  the  present  lords  of 
Farnley,  which  has  not  hitherto  been  explained.  It  may  be  well  to 
state  that  the  property  should  not  be  confused  with  another  ancient 
Newhall,  the  home  of  Edward  Fairfax,  the  poet  (d.  1635),*  which  is 
in  the  parish  of  Fewston,  and  was  removed  in  1876,  when  the  Swinsty 
reservoir  was  begun. 

I  have  just  said  that  the  Otley  Newhall  passed  to  the  Procters, 
and  by  them  it  was  sold  about  1660  to  the  Wilkinsons.  Anne,  daughter 
of  Michael  Fawkes,  of  South  Duffield  and  Farnley  (the  unfortunate 

HI-  \va-~  married  to  Dorothy  Laycork,  of  I.i-rds,  in  1600-1.  .Sir  '/'/nnrs/ir  \<n; 
1'uli.  iii.  17 


96 

Royalist)  married,  for  her  first  husband,  Henry,  son  and  heir  of  Henry 
Procter,  of  Newhall ;  her  second  husband  being  Ralph  Fincham,  of 
Caton,  near  Lancaster.  She  died  in  1682,  aged  44.  Her  grandnephew, 
Francis  Fawkes,  of  Farnley,  who  was  born  in  1707,  married,  April 
loth,  1733,  Christiana  (then  in  her  i7th  year),  daughter  and  heiress 
of  William  Wilkinson,  of  Newhall  (the  last  of  the  male  line,  who 
died  in  1731,  aged  75),  whose  family  had  then  possessed  the  estate 
about  seventy  years.  Thus  having  been  sold  by  the  ancestor  of 
'  Fawkes,  it  returned  to  the  family  in  this  interesting  manner,  and  still 
•  forms  part  of  the  Farnley  Hall  estates.  According  to  Warburton, 
Somerset  Herald,  who  made  a  rough  sketch  of  the  hall  on  the  occasion 
2,  of  his  visit  in  February,  1718-19,  the  hall  was  then  in  the  occupation 
of  Edmund  Barker,  Esq. 

On  the  death  of  Francis  Fawkes  in  1786,  the  house,  according  to 
Hargrove,  was  occupied  by  Thomas  Clifton,  Esq.,  barrister-at-la\v,* 
and  afterwards  for  some  years  by  a  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Smith  and  a  Mrs. 
Windsor,  who  had  retired  from  long  service  at  Farnley  Hall,  besides 
a  family  who  had  the  farm  attached  to  it.  The  old  house  at  that 
time  was  fast  going  to  decay,  and  Dr.  Shaw,  a  surgeon  at  Otley, 
gives  the  following  amusing  anecdote  about  the  shaky  condition  of 
the  old  wings  of  the  dwelling,  some  time  about  1820. 

I  well  remember  attending  an  invalid  there  ;  it  was  in  winter,  and  the  night  rainy, 

with  a  strong  wind.     About  ten  o'clock  Mrs.  Windsor  called  on  the  servant  to  bring 

her  clogs,    cloak,    umbrella,   and   lantern,   for  she  would  go  to  bed.       I   was  a  little 

surprised  to  hear  the  old  lady  give  such  orders,  and  enquired  it"  she  was  going  out  of 

.the  house  to  sleep.      "  No,"  she  replied,  "but  the  long  east  passage  that  leads  to  my 

/  room  is  so  very  dark,  windy,  and  wet,  that  I  always  take  these  precautions   in   such 

nights  as  this,  for  fear  of  losing  my  light  or  getting  cold."     Upon  examination  I  found 

all   these  things   necessary,  for    the  long   east   gallery  was  in   bad    repair,    water  was 

dropping  from  the  ceiling,  and  the  wind  driving  the  rain  through  the  broken  window-. 

The  old  house,  indeed,  before  its  restoration,  was  just  the  kind  of  lonely 
mansion  to  cry  out  as  haunted;  the  dark,  howling  corridors,  loose 
casements,  and  creaking  footways  must  often,  I  opine,  have  conjured 
thoughts  of  things  uncanny  in  the  minds  of  the  half-slumbering 
inmates,  particularly  on  stormy  nights.  Dr.  Shaw  also  refers  to  the 
fine  grove  of  old  trees  near  the  house ;  one  of  them,  an  oak  growing  on 
the  north  side,  must  have  been  a  majestic  object,  for  he  thought  it  "the 
finest  in  the  valley." 

The  beautifully-situated  mansion  below,  known  as  Newall  Hall, 
was  in  the  early  part  of  the  century  occupied  by  a  family  named 
Ward,  whose  descendants,  the  Billams,  long  resided  here.  The  late 
Mr.  Francis  Billam,  who  was  an  active  county  magistrate  from  the  year 

");  Hargrove  evidently  confuses  the  two  Newhalls,  and  this  observation  may  apply 
to  the  N'ewhall  in  Fc-wston. 


07 

1833  to  the  time  of  his  death  in  June,  1867,  was  well  known  and  highly 
respected  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Otley,  being  a  gentleman  of 
generous  sympathies  and  of  a  charitable  disposition.  At  \e\vall  Hall 
he  had  a  fine  collection  of  mounted  birds  and  other  natural  history 
objects,  besides  a  great  many  other  curios,  including  works  of  art, 
autographs,  &c.  Amongst  the  autographs  were  letters  of  Cromwell, 
several  of  the  Stuart  monarchs,  and  some  interesting  letters  written  by 
the  celebrated  evangelist,  John  Wesley.  The  hall  has  since  been 
occupied  by  the  Wilkinsons. 

Not  far  from  here  are  the  large  buildings  of  the  Workhouse  of  the 
extensive  Otley  Union.  The  old  Workhouse  was  in  Cross  Green, 
Otley,  and  a  century  ago  there  were  on  an  average  from  30  to  40 
paupers  always  in  the  house,  who  appear  to  have  been  well  cared  for. 
One  of  the  inmates,  Martha  Dixon,  an  unrecorded  centenarian,  died  in 
the  house  in  1802,  aged  106,  and  retained  her  faculties  to  the  last.  Up 
to  the  final  year  of  her  life  she  maintained  her  bodily  activity,  and  used 
to  go  about  the  town  soliciting  alms,  which  were  freely  given  to  her  on 
account  of  her  great  age.  At  this  time  law  and  order  was  maintained 
by  the  old  parish  constables,  but  Otley  had  its  refractories  and 
notorious  characters,  who  well  knew  the  gruesome  "  black  hole  "  under 
the  old  workhouse. 


CHAPTER     V. 


FARNLEY. 

Farnley  I  lall  and  the  Fawkes  family — The  family  muniment-  Historical  -ketch — The 
late  Mr.  Ayscoug-h  Fawkcs  and  the  Rev.  Frederick  Fawkes —The  hall  and  it- 
trca-ures  The  Turner  drawing-  Relics  of  the  Civil  War  -The  park  Sale  ol 
pedigree  stock  -The  church  — Discovery  ol  a  lead  coffin. 

EAUTIFUL  and  retired  is  the  neighbourhood  of  Farnley, 
2/Jjk  \v'th  its  handsome  old  manor-hall  associated  with  the 
name  of  Fawkes  uninterruptedly  for  nearly  seven 
centuries.  The  family  is  said  to  have  come  from 
Avignon,  in  France,  early  in  the  reign  of  Henry  III., 
and  to  have  settled  at  Newhall  and  Farnley  soon  afterwards.  But 
there  are  at  Farnley  Hall  no  original  records  of  the  Fawkes  family  of 
so  early  a  date  as  this.  There  are  about  a  dozen  large  boxes  of  deeds, 
at  least  four  of  which  contain  numerous  documents  of  the  middle  of 
the  seventeenth  century.  There  are  about  a  score  deeds  and  charters 
of  no  earlier  date  than  the  fourteenth  century  relating  to  affairs  of  the 
Hawksworths.  Also  among  the  early  deeds  is  a  release  by  the 
Templars,  which  names  as  witnesses  several  of  the  Order.  I  have  also 
seen  here  about  forty  early  deeds  relating  to  properties  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Silkstone  and  Barnsley.  Likewise  a  number  of 
charters  concerning  grants  of  land,  chiefly  about  Stainburn,  to 
Fountains  Abbey.  The  only  one  apparently  foreign  to  the  present 
owners  and  district  is  a  bond  of  Walter  de  Hurthworthe,  parson  of  the 
moiety  of  the  church  of  Sedbergh,  dated  at  Sedbergh,  fourteenth  year 
of  Edward  II.  (A.D.  1320).  But  in  this  deed  reference  is  made  to  a 
William  de  Siggeswikes,  and  this  is,  I  believe,  one  of  the  Fountains 
Abbey  family,  and  is,  I  should  say,  the  earliest  mention  of  a  Sedgwick 
in  Lonsdale  that  has  been  discovered.  There  was  a  Thomas  de 
Sigeswik  and  wife  living  at  Kirkby  Malzeard,  near  Ripon,  in  1379, 
who  are  conjectured  to  have  been  the  progenitors  of  the  Sidgwicks 
connected  with  Fountains  Abbey  about  this  time.*  The  Farnley  deed 
may  have  got  here  with  the  other  charters  concerning  that  monastery. 

In  1312  William  de  Fawkes  de  Frenale  is  witness  to  a  deed  of 
Wm.  Vavasour,  and  in  1320  he  attests  by  the  name  of  William  de 
Fernelay  a  deed  of  Agnes,  daughter  of  Sir  Richard  de  Storkheld.t  In 


See  ihc   author's  Cran-n  //i^/i/aiif/,  paj^e  4^1.        |    Vorks.  (.  '</.  .!/«//•.,    iSqi,  p.    no. 


too 

1315  the  Fawkes'  held  the  manor  of  Farnley  of  the  Archbishop  of  York 
by  knight  service,  and  the  Archbishop  of  the  King.*  In  1378 
Johannes  de  Fawkes  paid  i2d.  tax  for  that  he  and  his  wife  kept  an 
hostel  at  Farnley.  At  this  time  Farnley  was  more  populous  than  now  ; 
there  were  then  at  least  thirty  separate  families  in  the  village.  In  the 
reign  of  Henry  VII.  John  Fawkes,  of  Farnley,  was  steward  of  the 
Forest  of  Knaresbro',  a  post  that  had  been  lately  filled  by  Thomas, 
son  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  the  distinguished  poet.  This  John  Fawkes 
had  three  sons,f  (i)  Nicholas,  of  Farnley,  (2)  William,  buried  at  St. 
Michael-le-Belfrey,  York,  in  150  r,  and  (3)  Henry,  a  merchant  of  York, 
who  died  in  1570,  leaving,  according  to  Mr.  Davies,|  a  son  named 
William  Fawkes,  who  married  Ellen,  daughter  of  William  Haryngton, 
Lord  Mayor  of  York,§  and  by  whom  he  had  a  son  Edward  (whose 
widow  married  Dionis  Baynbrigge,  of  Scotton,  in  Nidderdale),  father 
of  the  conspirator,  Guy  Fawkes.  The  latter  was  baptised  at  St. 
Michael-le-Belfrey,  York,  i6th  April,  1570,  where  his  three  younger 
sisters  were  baptised.  It  is  also  noteworthy  that  Nicholas  Fawkes,  of 
Farnley,  had  a  son  John,  who  married  a  daughter  of  William 
Arthington,  of  Castley,  in  the  parish  of  Leathley,  by  whom  he  had 
issue  Anthony  Fawkes,  of  York,  who  died  in  1551,  and  whose  widow, 
a  Vavasour,  of  Weston,  married  secondly  Peter  Bainbridge,  of  Scotton, 
father  of  Dionis  Baynbridge  (a  staunch  Roman  Catholic),  who  married 
the  widowed  mother  of  Guy  Fawkes. ^[  Anthony's  younger  brother, 
Richard  Fawkes,  of  Farnley,  left  a  son  Thomas,  who  died  unmarried 
in  i627,||  consequently  the  Farnley  estate  went  to  Marmaduke,  son  of 
the  above  Nicholas  Fawkes,  whose  son  Marmaduke,  of  Woodhall-cum- 
Brackenholme,  South  Duffield,  and  Farnley,  is  named  in  Peacock's  list 
of  Yorkshire  Papists  in  1604.  His  son  Michael,  of  Woodhall,  in  the 
parish  of  Hemingborough,  who  died  in  1647,  nad  to  compound  for  his 
estates  during  the  Civil  War,  and  was  fined  ,£360.  He  was  thrice 

"  .Sin-tees  Soc.  Pub.,  vol.  xlix.,  p.  349. 

I  Richard  Fawkes,  who  was  a  foreigner  by  birth,  is  stated  to  be  the  .second  son  of 
John  Fawkes,  of  Farnley,  near  Otley.  He  was  a  printer  at  the  Lyon  monastery  in  1535, 
and  Herbert  states  that  Wycr  was  his  servant. 

;[:  There  seems  to  be  no  direct  proof  that  William  Fawkes  was  the  son  of  Henry, 
but  Mr.  Davies  in  The  Fawkes  of  York,  thinks  it  very  probable  he  was.  Of  course  if 
this  is  not  so  the  connection  of  Guy  Fawkes  with  the  Farnley  family  falls  to  the  ground. 
Clay's  Dugdale,  iii.,  205. 

§  She  died  in  1575,  and  by  will  left  to  her  young  grandson,  Guy  Fawkes,  the  future 
conspirator,  "  my  best  whistle,  and  one  ould  angell  of  gould." 

IT  See  the  author's  Nidderdale,  pp.  341-3. 

||  Thomas'  mother  was  a  daughter  of  Sir  Thomas  Johnson,  of  Lindley  (see  footnote 
on  page  63),  and  he  was  buried  within  Otley  Church,  near  his  seat  in  the  choir,  and  he 
bequeathed  two  messuages  in  Otley  to  the  churchwardens  for  the  list-  of  the  poor 
widows  <>!'  Farnley  for  ever. 


married;  the  second  thru1,  in  1634,  at  Add,  to  Jane,  daughter  of 
Cyril  Arthington,  Esq.,  whose  wife  Rosamond,  daughter  of  William 
Hawkesworth,  Esq.,  of  Hawkesworth,  in  the  parish  of  Guiseley,  also 
appears  as  a  recussant  at  Adel  in  1604,  having  absented  herself  from 
the  Parish  Church  then  two  years.  Michael's  youngest  son,  Francis, 
by  his  third  wife,  it  may  be  noted,  was  baptised  in  March,  1643-4,  at 
the  same  font  in  York  as  the  conspirator,  Guy  Fawkes,  above 
mentioned.  His  brother  Thomas  succeeded  to  Farnley,  and  was  M.P. 
for  Knaresborough,  1688-1695  ;  he  married  (i)  Sarah,  daughter  and 
heir  of  Francis  Mitchell,  Esq.,  of  Arthington  Grange,  and  (2),  Mary, 
daughter  of  Wm.  Welby,  Esq.,  of  Denton,  co.  Lincoln. 

The  last  lineal  heir  of  the  Fawkes'  was  Francis,  only  son  of 
Francis  Fawkes,  who  died  unmarried  in  his  father's  lifetime,  when  his 
father  who  died  in  1786  left  the  bulk  of  his  estate  to  his  relative  Walter 
Ramsden  Beaumont  Hawksworth  Esq.,  who  assumed  the  surname 
and  arms  of  Fawkes,  pursuant  to  the  will  of  the  testator,  Francis 
Fawkes  Esq.,  of  Farnley.  He  was  High  Sheriff  of  Yorkshire  in  1789, 
and  died  in  1792,  and  a  monument  before  mentioned  is  erected  to  his 
memory  in  Otley  Church.  His  eldest  son,  Walter  Ramsden  Fawkes 
Esq.,  who  died  in  1825  and  was  M.P.  for  the  county  of  York  in  1806,* 
was  a  gentleman  of  broad  political  views  and  generous  sympathies. 
He  was  one  of  the  pioneers  in  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and  his  political 
activities  had  "  the  applause  of  the  friends  of  the  Africans  and  clothiers, 
although  a  very  clamorous  and  violent  party  pretends  to  question  his 
loyal  integrity,  yet  the  childish  efforts  of  this  silly  faction  rather 
enhance  the  worth  than  tarnish  the  character  of  this  great  man/'  t  He 
was  the  friend  and  patron  of  the  great  artist  J.  M.  W.  Turner,  R.A. 
The  distinguished  painter  was  a  frequent  visitor  at  Farnley,  and  the 
large  collection  of  his  drawings  preserved  at  the  Hall  have  given  a 
fame  to  Farnley  far  beyond  our  own  dominions.  To  this  subject  I 
shall  return  presently.  Mr.  Walter  Fawkes  was  twice  married,  but 
had  no  children  by  his  second  wife.  By  his  first  wife  he  left  a  family 
of  four  sons  and  seven  daughters  ;  the  last  surviving  daughter  being 
Miss  Harriet  Esther,  who  died  in  London,  December  29th,  1893,  in  her 
goth  year.  The  youngest  son,  the  late  Major  Richard  Fawkes,  who 
was  born  in  1809  and  died  in  December  1896,  had  served  some 
years  in  the  27th  Foot.  He  married  a  daughter  of  the  late  Mr. 
Archibald  Paris,  and  had  seven  sons,  at  least  five  of  whom  are  officers 
in  either  the  army  or  the  navy.  Another  daughter,  Amelia,  married 

*  He  wrote  the  Englishman's  Manual  or  a  Dialogue  between  a  Tc.ry  and  Kft'iunu-i-, 
Leeds  (1817). 

T  MS.  History  <>f  \Vharfedale  (1807). 


102 


Digby  Cayley  Wrangham  Esq.,  Q.C.,  M.P.,  second  son  of  the 
celebrated  Archdeacon  Wrangham.  He  died  in  1863,  and  was  the 
uncle  to  Ayscough  Fawkes,  Esq.,  the  recent  owner  of  Farnley,  who 
succeeded  to  the  estates  in  1871,  on  the  death  of  his  father,  the  Rev. 
Ayscough  Fawkes,  rector  of  Leathley. 

The  late  squire  of  Farnley,  whose  portrait  is  here  presented,  took 
an  active  interest  in  the  district,  and  was  widely  known  in  many  and 
various  capacities.  He  was  for  nearly  thirty  years  Chairman  of  the 
Otley  Bench  of  Magistrates,  and  was  a  D.L.  of  the  West  Riding. 
He  was  particularly  interested  in  all  matters  appertaining  to  the  farm 
and  field,  and  since  1871,  up  to  the  time  of  his  death,  was  President 
of  the  Wharfedale  Agricultural  Society,  as  well  as  President  of  the 
Wharfedale  Chamber  of  Agriculture.  He  was  also  a  member  of  the 
Council  of  the  Yorkshire  Agricultural  Society  and  a  life  governor  of 
the  Yorkshire  College.  Locally,  in  out-of-door  pastimes  Mr.  Ayscough 
Fawkes  was  always  ready  to  lend  a  helping  hand,  and  though  himself 
naturally  infirm  and  unable  to  endure  much  vigorous  exercise,  he 
loved  occasionally  to  handle  a  gun  on  the  grouse  moors  and  was 
accounted  a  very  fair  shot.  To  the  Otley  Angling  Association,  of 
which  he  had  been  President  twenty-one  years,  he  rendered  exceptional 
service,  particularly  in  regard  to  ova  and  the  breeding  of  fish.  With 
most,  if  not  all  the  local  institutions  and  charities  his  name  was  long 
associated,  and  though  constantly  hampered  by  all  sorts  of  claims  he 
gave  generously  to  all  deserving  objects.  He  was  a  great  patron  of 
music  and  to  the  Otley  Philharmonic  Society  he  rendered  valuable  help. 
In  1883  when  the  late  Duke  of  Albany  and  his  then  bride  attended 
the  Leeds  Musical  Festival,  they  were  entertained  at  Farnley  Hall 
from  October  gth  to  the  i3th,  the  occasion  being  marked  by  much 
rejoicing  by  the  people  of  Otley.  Mr.  Fawkes  in  1865  married  his 
cousin  Edith  Mary,  a  daughter  of  the  late  Sir  Anthony  Cleasby,  a 
Baron  of  the  Court  of  Exchequer,  by  whom  he  left  no  issue.  He  died 
on  June  2ist,  iSgg^aged  68  years  ;  his  successor  to  the  estates  being  his 
brother,  the  Rev.  ^Frederick  Fawkes,  vicar  of  Escrick,  near  York. 
This  gentleman  had  been  in  possession  of  the  estate  little  more  than 
six  months  when  he  was  taken  suddenly  ill  and  died  at  Farnley  on 
February  3rd,  IQOO^  aged  66.  He  was  born  at  Caley  Hall  and  in 
early  life  had  been  curate  at  Stainburn.  During  his  late  brief  residence 
in  the  neighbourhood  he  had  taken  great  interest  in  the  varied  concerns 
of  the  estate,  and  by  his  cheerfulness,  energy  and  tact,  had  already 
made  himself  very  popular.  To  his  kindness  the  present  writer  is 
indebted  for  an  inspection  of  the  old  family  papers  previously  alluded 
to.  His  successor  is  his  eldest  son,  Frederick  Hawksworth  Fawkes,  Esq.. 
J.P.,  who  received  his  educational  training  at  Eton  and  Cambridge. 


AYSCOUGH    FAWKES,    ESQ.,    J.P. 


io3 

Farnlev  Hall  is  a  fine  mansion  well  situated  on  a  slight  eminence 
in  the  midst  of  a  noble  domain  (jvr  plate).  The  extensive  addition^. 
to  the  old  Elizabethan  house  were  carried  out  by  Mr.  Walter  Hawksworth 
Fa  \\kes  a.-,  before  stated,  in  1786,  under  direction  of  the  eminent  architect, 
John  Carr.*  The  interior  adornments  of  the  house  are  of  the  most 
beautiful  and  costly  character,  the  handsome  staircase,  wall-decorations 
and  ceilings  being  all  executed  by  the  first  artists.  There  is  some  very 
fine  old  oak  furniture,  also  a  chimney-piece  \vith  quaint  overmantel  of 
oak  made  from  an  old  bedstead,  traditionally  believed  to  have  been 
occupied  by  King  James  I.,  when  on  a  visit  to  Hawksworth  I  fall.  f 
The  large  chimney-piece  in  the  dining-room  is  of  Italian  marble, 
beautifully  designed  and  wrought  bv  Fisher,  of  York.  Another  notable 
object  is  the  ancient  stained  glass  window,  most  of  which  was  brought 
from  Hawksworth  Hall.  On  one  square  appears  the  initials  of  John 
Hawkesworth  who  served  under  Richard  Pons,  a  Norman  lord,  at  the 
battle  of  Hastings,  and  on  another  the  principal  quartering*,  in  heraldic 
colours,  of  intermarriages  with  the  families  of  Hawkesworth  and 
Fawkes.  The  walls  of  the  rooms  are  adorned  by  a  great  number  of 
choice  paintings  by  the  great  masters,  including  works  by  Vandyke, 
Cuyp,  Guide,  Carracci,  &c.  But  the  chiefjflory  of  these  exhibitions 
is  the  unrivalled  collection  of  drawings  by  J.  M.  W.  Turner,  which 
have  been  so  eloquently  described  and  criticised  by  John  Ruskin  in 
Pre-Raphaelitism,  and  other  of  his  books.  There  are  or  were  no  fewer 
than  170  of  the  great  master's  drawings  at  Farnlev,  all  carefully 
arranged,  a  priceless  and  unique  set,  unequalled  by  any  other  collection 
of  his  works  in  the  kingdom,  and  which  as  time  rolls  on  must  become 
ever  increasingly  valuable.:}:  They  range  in  point  of  date  from  1806 
to  1820,  during  which  period  the  artist  spent  some  of  the  happiest 
years  of  his  life  as  the  guest  of  Mr.  Walter  Fawkes  in  Wharfedale, 
"days  so  happy  that  after  his  friend  died  in  1825,  he  would 
never  return  there,  although  he  kept  up  a  correspondence  with  Mr. 
Francis  Hawksworth  Fawkes,  to  whom  Mr.  Ruskin  dedicated  his 
Pre-Raphaelitism^  For  Mr.  Walter  Fawkes's  book,  Chronology  of 
Modem  Europe  (York,  1816),  Turner  drew  the  frontispiece,  and  when 
at  Farnley  he  would  amuse  his  friend  by  making  drawings  of  different 
parts  of  the  hall,  the  lodges,  the  trees,  and  even  of  the  game  he  shot. 
From  a  long  and  spirited  notice  of  the  Farnley  Hall  "Turners" 
furnished  by  a  writer  in  the  Athenaum  for  1879,  I  w^'  quote  what 
is  said  of  the  splendid  display  in  the  principal  room  :  — 

In  the  saloon  at  Farnley  Hall  hang  not  fewer  than  fifty-out-  superb  drawing-,  in 

*  For  a  long  notice  of  Carr  and  his  works  see  Yorks.  Anhl.  //.,  J  V.,  p.  200,  et  \K/. 

t  See  the  author's  Romantic  Richnionilshirc,  pp.  466-7. 

±  A  few  years  ago  a  portion  of  the  collection  was  sold  at  Christie's. 


, 

' 

2£u-       Ct£t^WZZ*C     /2x.A£frCtA~  r]      *(.AM4^J-f4<^*^C  / 


T04 

water-colors  by  Turner,  nearly  all  of  which  are  masterpiece1;  in  the  treatment  of  light, 
shadow,  clouds,  water,  rocks,  and  trees  ;  the}'  furnish  a  perfect  treasury  of  various 
studies  of  these  complex  and  difficult  subjects,  and  looking  at  the  whole  as  illustrating 
that  stage  in  the  painter's  career  to  which  they  owe  their  existence,  doubtless  no  room 
in  the  world,  not  even  the  National  Gallery,  nor  the  collections  of  Mr.  Ruskin  and  Mr. 
Kingsley,  is  richer.  Within  the  limits  of  production,  which  are  thus  indicated,  these 
drawings  vary  in  their  dates  from  1800  to  the  famous  "  Mont  Cenis  "  of  1820  ;  each  one, 
however,  marks  the  attainment  of  a  step  in  knowledge  and  skill,  a  distinct  achievement, 
and  the  consolidation,  so  to  say,  of  countless  foregone  studies,  directed  by  the  utmost 
devotion,  and  guided  by  consummate  art.  Here  are  instances  of  stringent  training  of 
the  most  skilful  of  human  hands,  the  widest  and  most  exact  observation,  and 
indefatigable  industry.  On  looking  round  the  sumptuous  room,  it  is  impossible  to 
avoid  feeling  that  any  amount  of  time,  labour,  and  intelligence  might  be  devoted  to  an 
examination  of  its  contents,  nor  can  a  visitor  escape  the  conviction  that  it  is  hopeless  to 
try  to  do  more  than  give  a  faint  idea  of  such  wonders  as  these.  That  Turner's 
accomplished,  eloquent  and  devoted  prophet  has  already  dealt  with  many  of  the 
examples  is  at  once  an  encouragement  and  a  deterrent  to  the  writers  who  follow  him. 

In  addition  to  the  numerous  paintings  there  is  a  large  and  valuable 
library,  and  a  variety  of  rarities  and  bric-a-brac  from  almost  all 
quarters  of  the  world.  There  are  also  many  interesting  trophies  of  the 
great  Civil  War,  in  which  the  Fawkes  family  with  other  local  gentry 
was  greatly  concerned,  including  the  three  swords  used  by  Cromwell, 
Fairfax,  and  Lambert,  and  a  cup  made  out  of  one  of  the  boots  worn 
by  Fairfax  at  Marston  Moor  in  1644,  al*°  Fairfax's  drum.  The 
following  is  a  list  of  the  Cromwelliana  sent  from  Farnley  to  the  great 
exhibition  at  York  in  1846.  The  collection  is  unique  of  its  kind,  some 
of  the  objects  having  at  one  time  been  in  possession  of  the  family  of 
General  Fairfax  : 

1.  A  sword  well  authenticated  as  having  been  used  by  Oliver  Cromwell.     It  is 
double-edged,  straight,  with  a  guard  formed  of  a  single  bow  ending  near  the  blade  in  a 
sort  of  quarter  basket,  resembling  such  as  were  generally  used  in  the  time  of  Charles  II. 

2.  A   broad-brimmed    hat,    low    in    the    crown,    of    clrab-colored    felt,    worn    by 
Cromwell.     It  was  preserved  for  many  years  at  Denham  Place,  Bucks.,  and  given  by 
the  late  Benj.  Way,  Esq.,  to  Thomas  Lister  Parker,  Ksq.,  by  whom  it  was  presented  to 
Mr.  Fawkes. 

3.  A  watch  used  by  Cromwell.     It  is  a  small  repeater,  bearing  the  name  of  the 
maker,  Jaques  Cartier  ;  the  outer  case  is  formed  of  leather,  studded  with  silver. 

4.  A  sword,  used  by  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax.      It  is  a  straight  broad-sword,   with  a 
basket  hilt,  in  the  Scotch  fashion,  richly  inlaid  with  silver.     On  the  blade  is  the  name  of 
the  maker,  Andrea  Ferara,  and  the  forge-mark,  a  mound  or  globe,  surmounted  by  a 
double  or  patriarchal  cross. 

v  A  sword  which  belonged  to  General  Lambert.  It  is  a  hanger,  serrated  at  the 
back,  the  handle  formed  of  gilt  brass,  representing  a  lion  sitting  on  his  haunches,  and 
holding  with  his  fore-paws  the  guard,  which  consists  of  a  single  bow.  The  blade  bears 
the  forge  mark  of  a  dolphin,  and  date  1648. 

6.  Silver  matrix  of  the  seal  prepared  during  the  time  of  the  Commonwealth,  for 
the  approval  of  ministers  ordered  to  travel  through  England  to  preach.     In  the  centre 
is  the  book  of  the  Scriptures,  opened  and  inscribed  thus  :  THE  WORD  OF  GOD  ;  on 
either  side  is  a  palm  branch,  and  the  following  legend  runs  around  the  verge  :  THE 
SEAL  FOR  APPROBATION  OF  MINISTERS. — A  representation  of  it  is  given  in  Whitaker's 
Whalley,  page  89. 

7.  Square  brass  candlesticks  known  to  have  been  used  by  Sir  Thos.  Fairfax. 


Thf  massive  antique  oak  furniture  and  Kli/abethan  paintings, 
together  with  the  armour  and  relics  above  described,  give  a  real  historic 
grandeur  to  the  fine  apartment. 

The   park  at  Farnley,   as   I   have  said,  is  very  extensive  and  in 
common   with   similar  domains  of  the  Wharfedale  gentry,   was  once 
famous  for  its  stock  of  shorthorn  cattle.     Former  squires  also  kept  a 
pack  of  hounds  at  the  Hall,  but  the  kennels  have  been  transformed  into 
farm-buildings.      In  September,   1899,  shortly  after  the  death  of  Mr. 
Ayscough   Fawkes,  the  Farnley  herd,  so  long  celebrated  in  the  history 
of  pedigree  stock,  was  disposed  of  by  auction,  and  the  following  may 
be  placed  on  record  as  a  summary  of  the  sale  : — 

Average.  Total. 

30  cows  and  heifers       ...          ---,£27     o     o         ;£8i6   18     o 
IT  bulls  and  calves        ...          ...     20     i     o  220   10     o 

9  thorough-bred  horses  ...     23     6     8  210     o     o 

4  half-bred  ,,  ...     33      r     6  132     6     8 

Among  the  purchasers  were  the  Earl  of  Harewood,  Col.  Ramsden, 
Messrs.  E.  W.  Stanyforth,  Kirk  Hammerton  ;  W.  H.  Hutchinson, 
Beverley;  F.  J.  S.  Foljambe,  Osberton,  Notts.;  John  Brown,  Otley; 
W.  Robinson,  Bolton  Abbey,  &c.  The  highest  price  realized  for  a 
single  animal  was  ninety-three  guineas,  paid  by  Mr.  H.  Williams,  of 
Moor  Park,  Harrogate,  for  the  pedigree  cow,  Majors  Bracelet,  calved 
in  March,  1896.  A  good  deal  of  interesting  information  on  this  subject 
and  on  the  shorthorn  wonders  of  Farnley  and  Burley  (whence  the 
Farnley  stock  really  originated)  will  be  found  in  the  late  Mr.  H.  H. 
Dixon's  Saddle  and  Sir/oin,  published  in  1870. 

The  church  at  Farnley  is  not  like  that  at  Weston,  mentioned  in 
Domesday,  though  it  is  a  Norman  foundation.  The  church,  however, 
was  almost  wholly  rebuilt  in  1851,  and  at  this  day  one  cannot  but  wish 
that  the  "much-needed  restoration"  had  been  of  a  more  conservative 
character.  Little  save  the  lower  wall  of  the  north  side*  is  visible  to 
bespeak  its  centuries  of  past  history,  while  as  a  chapel-of-ease  to  the 
mother  church  at  Otley,  it  must  also  be  said  the  records  of  its  peaceful 
ministrations  to  unnumbered  generations  of  worshippers  are  very  few. 
The  east  end  had  Early  English  windows,  and  the  present  church  has 
been  built  in  that  style,  while  the  old  arch  separating  the  choir  from  the 
nave  had  Norman  billet  mouldings  certainly  not  later  than  the  time  of 
Henry  I.  An  inscription  beneath  the  west  window  states  that  the 
chapel  was  erected  in  1250,  but  this  date  needs  correction.  The 

*  The  north  wall  was  left  standing- and  is  of  nidi-  Karlv  Knglish  character,  without 
base-plinths  as  in  the  rebuilt  portion.  MOM  of  the  old  wall-stones  were  u--e<l  in  the 
rebuilding-. 


io6 

foundation,  judging  by  the  remains  of  its  architecture,  was  distinctly 
late  Norman,  of  the  time  of  Henry  I.  (A.D.  1100-1135).  ^n  tne 
Certificates  of  Chantries  &c.,  published  at  the  Reformation,  it  is  stated 
that  the  chapel  was  founded  to  aid  the  curate  of  Otley,  and  that  the 
then  (A.D.  1548)  incumbent,  one  Christopher  Wade,  was  sixty  years  old 
and  "full  of  sickeness,"  and  that  he  had  no  other  living  but  the  profits  of 
the  said  chapel,  which  amounted  to  ,£3  per  annum.  The  Commissioners 
recommended  that  owing  to  the  distance  from  the  parish  church,  the 
chapel  should  be  continued,  which  was  permitted.  The  living  has  since 
been  augmented  by  Parliamentary  grant,  &c.,  and  the  patronage  is  in 
the  hands  of  the  lord  of  the  manor  of  Farnley. 

There  was  a  large  farm-house  near  the  church  yard  steps  on  the 
north-east  side,  which  was  tenanted  for  a  long  time  by  the  Monckmans. 
Then  it  was  converted  into  kennels,  but  the  noise  made  by  the  dogs 
during  divine  service  soon  led  to  its  abandonment,  and  the  kennels  were 
removed  to  their  present  station.  Before  the  old  house  was  pulled 
down,  now  about  forty  years  ago,  it  was  tenanted  by  a  William  Freeman, 
who  had  a  couple  of  fields,  and  I  am  told  that  whilst  ploughing  one  of 
them  on  the  south  side  of  the  present  burial-ground,  an  old  lead  coffin 
was  turned  up,  and  the  lid  was  also  discovered  a  yard  or  two  away. 
The  coffin  contained  no  remains  and  it  was  hammered  up  and  sold.  A 
conspicuous  oak  tree  marks  the  site  where  it  was  found,  but  no  burials 
are  known  to  have  ever  taken  place  in  this  field. 


CHAPTER    VI. 


TITF.  PARISH  or  LKATIII.F.Y. 

Heautilnl  scenery  'I'lic  XVashluirn  Meaning  ol'  ilic  name  -Local  field-names  —  Pre- 
Conquest  I.calhley  Manorial  history  Meaning  of  I.eathley —The  De  T. clays  and 
oilier  families  Warburton's  visit  to  I.eathley  The  Pilgrimage  of  Grace—The 
Church  Architectural  description  Comparison  with  Celtic  churches  Historical 
reconU  The  old  rectory  Curious  old  stocks  and  whipping-post  Ancient  trades 
.it  l.i-athlcy  boundaries  of  the  common— The  school  and  almshouses  Mrs. 
\Vatson,  centenarian  I.eathley  Hall  C.i-tlrv,  the  hall,  &r. —  Historical  notes 
Chapel  Field  -Ancient  manor-house  -A  rural  solitude. 

ONTIGUOUS  to  Farnley  yet  separated  from  it  by  a 
natural  and  very  ancient  line  of  demarcation— the  rustic 
\Vushburn-is  the  picturesque  parish  of  Leathley,  with 
its  delightful  old  village  of  that  name,  laying  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  Wharfe  to  Pool  and  Otley  it  is  most 
frequently  approached  from  these  places,  and  visited  it  often  is,  for  its 
attractions  offer  too  tempting  a  bonne  louche  to  be  omitted  from  the 
rambler's  holiday  menu.  Here  he  may  feast  himself  on  the  beautiful 
pastoral  scenery,  on  the  well-laden  orchards — with  the  eye  only ! — 
wonder  at  the  many  natural  history  objects  and  varied  antiquities,  or 
turn  to  whatsoever  his  mind  honestly  listeth.  He  may  wander  beside 
the  prettily-verdured  banks  of  Washburn  by  the  old  Domesday  mill, 
getting  perchance  a  glimpse  of  the  stout  old  hall  at  Lindley  (now 
however,  a  good  farmhouse)  and  so  reach  the  Leeds  "Lake  District,'' 
as  the  upper  part  of  the  valley  may  be  called.  Here  the  long  bright 
expanses  that  supply  that  famous  city  with  pure  water  may  be  viewed, 
gleaming  in  the  distance,  lake-like  for  many  miles.  Many  a  ram  avis 
may  be  seen  too,  about  the  surface  or  upon  the  winding  shores,  while 
in  the  woods  and  lanes  around  in  the  budding  spring-time,  when 
orchard  garths  are  laden  with  the  rich  promise  of  later  days,  there 
bloom  the  sweet  violet  and  "dancing  daffodil,"  with  many  another 
wild  floral  gem. 

But  this  beautiful  little  upland  stream,  the  Washburn,  sometimes 
swells  into  a  great  rushing  torrent,  ravaging  the  country  on  its  banks, 
as  it  often  has  done,  but  more  particularly  in  former  times.  The 
heaviest  flood  recorded  occurred  on  August  4th,  1767,  when  the  water 
rose  six  feet  in  the  space  of  an  hour,  cattle  and  sheep  being  carried 
bodily  away,  two  houses  at  Beamsley  swept  down,  and  the  Dob  Park 
and  Lindley  bridges  completely  destroyed.  As  I  have  said  tin's 


io8 

Washburn  forms  a  very  old  boundary,  perhaps  as  old  as  the  Cymric- 
Celtic  settlement  of  the  district,  or  as  far  back  as  our  proofs  of  local 
occupation  go.  It  is  indeed  doubtful  whether  the  suffix  b^lrn,  which 
occurs  in  Washburn  and  Stainburn  in  this  neighbourhood,  has  anything 
to  do  with  the  Northumbrian  name  for  a  stream.  Throughout 
Scandinavian  Yorkshire  the  word  beck  is  invariably  used  to  describe  a 
stream  and  never  burn.*  Yet  as  I  have  explained  in  the  early  history 
of  Otley,  this  district  became  on  the  Celtic  conquest  or  withdrawal, 
such  an  important  and  populous  centre  of  Anglo-Saxon  power  that  one 
may  be  tempted  to  believe  the  term  burn  was  applied  as  a  stream- 
name  when  in  other  less  Anglian  localities  the  name  had  perished. 
But  whether  this  be  so  or  not,  I  may  observe  that  there  are  two  becks 
at  Stainburn,  the  West  Beck  and  the  East  Beck ;  not  a  single  burn,  and 
as  will  be  presently  seen  the  Teutonic  burn  has  another  meaning. 
Most  of  our  river-names  however,  are  thought  to  be  Celtic,  and  this 
may  be  the  same,  yet  I  must  doubt  it,  for  in  such  case  it  would  carry 
us  back  to  the  Goidelic  or  first  Celtic  occupation  of  modern  Yorkshire, 
as  from  the  Goidelic  iiisce  (water)  whence  the  A.-S.  wcesc  (a  washing) 
we  derive  such  names  as  Esk,  Ouse,  Wisk,  Eska,  Etsch,  &c.;  Wisbeach, 
for  example,  being  named  from  its  situation  on  the  Wysg  or  Wash, 
now  some  miles  from  the  beach  by  the  gradual  advance  of  the  land.f 

But  the  affix  burn  or  burne  may  be  also  Celtic,  as  it  appears  as 
a  Norse  loan-word  from  the  Irish  boireann,  a  stone  heap  or  ruin,  or  a 
place  abandoned. :{:  Probably  Stainburn  in  this  locality  has  such  a 
meaning,  from  the  neighbourhood  of  the  rocky  Almes  Cliff  having  been, 
as  is  well  ascertained,  occupied  by  Celts  and  abandoned  on  the 
Teutonic  irruption.  At  any  rate  the  stream  there  is  always  spoken  of  as 
Stainburn  Beck  and  never  as  the  Stain  burn.  Still  the  word  burn  taken 
in  the  sense  of  stream,  whether  Celtic  or  Anglo-Saxon,  has  much  the 
same  meaning  as  the  prefix  Wash,  and  may  be  a  reduplication.  I  feel, 
however,  impelled  to  the  conclusion  that  the  whole  word  is  Teutonic 
compounded  from  waesc  and  borran,  meaning  a  wash  or  stream  bounding 
or  bordering  a  place  abandoned  and  in  ruins.  And  this  I  have  proved 
to  be  the  case  so  far  as  the  Washburn  at  Leathley  is  concerned. 

That  Leathley,  like  Otley,  owes  its  origin  as  a  permanent 
settlement  to  the  Anglo-Saxons,  there  is  no  possible  doubt.  Whoever 
had  been  on  the  ground  before  either  disappeared  or  became  absorbed 
in  the  Anglian  population.  Such  field-names  as  Briffa  Butts,  Elmast 
Acre,  and  Carlshaw,  all  tell  of  Anglo-Saxon  possession,  and  these 
particular  fields,  it  is  interesting  to  note,  were,  until  recently,  long  narrow 

*  See  the  author's  Old  Bhigley,  p.  391.         f  See  Blackie's  Place  Names,  p.  199. 
J  See  the  discussion  on  the  words  "burn1  and   'borran"  in  the   Yorkshire  Weekly 
Post  (Notes  &  Queries)  for  March  and  April,  1900. 


109 


snips,  tlu-  survivals  of  the  Teutonic  MMrm  of  culture.  These  strips  or 
ix-ins  \\ere  formed  by  the  unenclosed  boundaries  of  unploughed  land, 
lying  contiguous  to  large  cultivated  areas,  abundant  evidences  of  which 
still  exist  in  the  terraced  reins  higher  up  the  dale.  There  is  no  doubt  the 
Anglo-Saxon  possessors  built  up  the  place,  extended  cultivation,  and 
remained  a  strong  force  in  the  neighbourhood,  in  spite  of  the  Norse 
irruption,  long  after  the  Norman  usurpation.  This  fact  must  be 
remembered  when  I  come  to  discuss  the  origin  of  the  church. 

Little  indeed  seems  to  have  been  said  about  Leathley,  but  with  the 
material  I  possess,  a  hundred  or  more  pages  on  this  interesting  old 
parish  might  be  written,  with  perhaps  less  trouble  than  the  following 
necessarily  condensed  account  must  entail.  I  have  just  spoken  of  the 
pre-Conquest  occupation  of  Leathley,  and  between  the  bridge  and  the 
almshouses  there  is  a  noticeable  avenue  of  fine  old  trees  striking  across 
the  park  and  up  tne  hill  northwards.  It  is  not  now  a  roadway  ;  the 
present  road  through  the  park  cuts  across  it  at  right  angles.  The 
avenue  extends  for  several  hundred  yards,  and  at  its  termination  on 
Scale  Hill  somewhat  extensive  foundations  of  buildings  of  unknown 
origin  were  dug  up  many  years  ago.  Several  querns,  or  hand  corn- 
mills,  were  also  found  on  the  site,  which  are  now  in  the  rectory  garden. 
There  is  a  very  artificial  look  about  this  hill,  which  has  the  appearance 
of  having  been  thrown  up  in  several  still  well-defined  rampart-like 
scarps.  The  discovery  of  old  housesteads  on  this  ground  may  lead  one 
to  suppose  that  this  was  the  site  of  the  original  village  commune, 
occupied  until  perhaps  after  the  Norman  usurpation,  while  the  name 
Scale  Hill,  like  the  Scaleber,  near  Burley,  already  explained,  and  other 
Wharfedale  "Scales,"  is  an  obvious  derivation  of  the  Scand.  scale,  skali, 
huts  or  homesteads. 

In  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Confessor  (1042-66),  Leathley  had 
been  in  two  manors,  one  of  them  containing  four  carucates  for  the 
plough,  a  mill,  and  two  acres  of  meadow,  belonging  to  Archil  ;  while 
the  other  consisted  of  one  carucate  for  the  plough  and  two  acres  ot 
meadow,  belonging  to  Ulchil.  On  the  partition  of  the  lands  by  the 
Conqueror,  Archil's  manor  went  to  William  de  Percy,  who  feud  it  to 
one  Ebrard,  while  Ulchil's  manor  passed  to  Giselbert  Tyson,  who  had 
it  farmed  by  three  villanes  and  one  border.  Robert  de  Bruis  had  also 
two  carucates  here.  On  the  Domesday  readjustment,  about  A.D.  1086, 
William  de  Percy  is  stated  to  hold  three  carucates  and  seven  bovates  ; 
the  King,  two  and  a  half  carucates  (two  of  which  had  belonged  to  Bruis), 
and  Giselbert  Tyson,  one  carucate,  all  in  Leathley.  The  taxable  value 
of  the  whole  lands  before  the  Conquest  in  1066  was  505.,  and 
afterwards  29^5.,  such  had  been  the  effect  of  the  Norman  depreciation. 
The  union  of  the  estate  in  one  township  (for  the  parish  apparently  was 


110 

not  formed,  nor  the  church  built)  in  the  manner  described  has  perhaps 
to  do  with  the  name  of  Leathley,  which  in  every  instance  in  Domesday 
appears  as  Ledelai ;  the  slight  change  in  spelling  being  an  evident 
attempt  on  the  part  of  the  French  Commissioners  to  interpret  the 
Anglo-Saxon  th,  unless  we  are  to  accept  the  Anglo-Saxon  lead  (the 
people),  as  the  version.  The  true  name  I  take  to  be,  as  generally 
pronounced  (though  sometimes  Lealey),  Leathley,  from  the  A.-S.  lael/t, 
a  district  or  division.  This  laeth,  according  to  Sir  Francis  Palgrave,  is 
a  synonym  of  leet,  sometimes  used  as  an  equivalent  to  a  hundred.* 

The  place  gave  name  to  an  ancient  and  notable  family, 
descendants  doubtless  of  the  pre-Conquest  owners.  In  my  Chronicles 
of  Old  Bingley  I  shew  how  Simon  de  Montalte,  lord  of  Riddlesden, 
&c.,  in  1165,  was  descended  maternally  from  Archil,  living  in  the  time 
of  Edward  the  Confessor,  and  this  family  became  mesne  lords  of 
Leathley  under  the  Norman  feudatories.  The  same  Simon  de 
Montalte  in  conjunction  with  one  William  de  Lethelia  and  Robert  and 
Hugo,  his  sons,  were  witnesses  to  the  charter  of  Gundreda  Haget  to 
Bilton,  temp.  Henry  II.  In  i2th  Henry  II.  (1165)  William,  son  of 
Hugh  de  Leeleia  (note  the  omission  of  the  Saxon  th,  so  difficult  for  the 
Norman  to  pronounce),  renders  an  account  of  iocs,  debt,  and  in  1205 
we  find  a  Sir  Hugh  de  Lelay  claiming  an  estate  in  Newton  Kyme  and 
Nun  Appleton  against  Walter  de  Faukenberg.  A  daughter  of  Sir 
Hugh  de  Lelay, f  Isolda,  married  Roger  Poictevin,  descended  from  the 
celebrated  hero  of  the  Conquest  of  the  same  name,  who  possessed  all 
the  land  between  the  Ribble  and  the  Mersey,  and  was  the  builder  of 
Clitheroe  Castle,  the  head  of  his  great  fief.  Isolda  gave  to  the  nunnery 
at  Appleton  an  estate  in  Castley,  in  the  parish  of  Leathley,  and  she 
also  bestowed  the  neighbouring  village  of  Stainburn  on  Fountains 
Abbey,  to  which  the  Montaltes  had  also  been  benefactors.  Her  son, 
Thomas  Poictevin,  gave  the  mill  of  Saxton  to  Nostal  Priory,  temp. 
John,}  at  which  time  also  the  church  at  Leathley  was  given  to  the 
same  Priory.§  The  church  at  Leathley  apparently  followed  that 
portion  of  the  manorial  property  held  by  this  family. 

*  An  example  will  be  found  cited  in  the  Bradford  Antiquary,  vol.  i,  p.  192.  See 
also  The  Commonwealth  of  England,  by  Sir  Thos.  Smith  (1633),  first  published  in  1583, 
and  containing  chapters  "on  the  Parts  of  Shires  called  Hundreds,  /.allies,  Rapes,  and 
Wapentakes,  &c.,"  quoted  by  Gomme,  Local  Institutions  (i.S86),  p.  15  ;  sec  also  Furley's 
History  of  the  Weald  of  Kent,  vol.  ii.,  pt.  ii.,  pp.  770-6. 

f  A  Hugo  de  Lelay  is  witness  to  a  charter  of  land  at  Farnley  granted  to  Archbishop 
Walter  Gray,  ca  1220 ;  and  Robert  de  Lelay  grants  land  in  Farnley  to  the  same  prelate. 
Surtees  Soc. ,  Ivi.  279-80. 

£  See  the  Kirkstall  Abbey  Charters,  published  by  the  Thoresby  Society. 

§  See  Burton's  Ecclesiastical  Hist. 


1  1  1 


Ac  voiding  to  Kirkby's  Inquest  (1284-5)  one-third  part  of  the 
manor  ot"  Leathley  was  held  for  one-third  of  a  Knight's  Fee  by  Galfrid 
de  Montalte,  of  the  Earl  of  Albemarle,  who  held  it  of  the  king  in 
capite,  and  another  third  part  was  held  by  the  master  of  St.  Leonard's 
Hospital,  York,  who  had  it  of  the  heirs  of  Percy.*  The  earldom  of 
Albemarle  terminated  in  the  reign  of  Edward  I.,f  when  their  lands 
lacking  heirs  were  escheated  to  the  Crown.  The  earls  had  been  lords 
of  the  honour  of  Skipton-in-Craven  up  to  this  time,  and  under  them 
Thomas  de  Leathley  had  held  the  important  post  of  Constable  of  the 
Castle.j  John  Leathley  was  sheriff  of  the  city  of  York  in  1468,$  but 
at  this  time  the  family  must  have  been  long  estranged  from  the  place 
of  its  nativity.  The  line  of  Montalte  expired  in  heiresses,  according  to 
Dods  worth,  towards  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century,  and  in  1315 
(vide  the  Noniina  Villaruni)  Leathley  is  returned  as  held  by  the  heirs  of 
Percy  then  in  custody  of  the  king.  Their  badge  (a  crescent  with 
fetterlock)  is  cut  in  stone  in  the  nave  of  the  church. 

How  or  when  the  Lindleys  came  into  possession  of  the  estates  at 
Leathley  is  not  exactly  known.  Robert  de  Lyndley,  armiger,  was 
evidently  living  at  Lindley  and  not  at  Leathley  in  1378.^  They  took 
their  name  from  the  adjoining  township,  and  as  already  pointed  out, 
William  de  Lindley  was  lord  of  Farnley,  temp.  Henry  III.  For  many 
generations  they  resided  at  the  old  hall  at  Leathley,||  and  the  pre- 
Reformation  chapel  in  the  north  transept  of  Otley  Church,  with  its 
curious  old  brass,  previously  alluded  to,  was  their  property.  The  last 
male  heir  of  the  Leathley  family  was  Arthur  Lindley,  J.P.  in  1634, 
whose  wife  was  a  daughter  of  Sir  John  Garrett,  Lord  Mayor  of  London, 
and  by  whom  he  left  two  daughters,  co-heiresses.**  One  of  these  was 
married  to  Sir  Edward  Loftus,  of  Ely,  and  the  other,  Helen,  became 
the  wife  of  (i)  Sir  Ingram  Hopton,  of  Armley,  who  died  in  1643, 


\Vith  some  few  exceptions  the  estates  ot  Roger  de  Foictevin  in  England  were 
given  by  Henry  I.  to  Count  Stephen,  his  nephew,  who,  when  king,  granted  nearly  the 
whole  of  them  to  Ranulph,  Earl  of  Chester  (ob.  1129);  while  Robert  de  Rumeli  and 
Alan  de  Perci  appear  to  have  acquired  the  lands  of  his  fief  in  Craven.  Yorks.  Arch.  JL, 
xiv.  300  n.  Cecily  de  Rumelli,  daughter  and  heir  of  the  said  Robert  de  Rumelli, 
married  William  de  Meschines,  younger  brother  of  Ranulph,  Earl  of  Chester.  Their 
daughter  Alice  married  William  Kit/-  Duncan,  nephew  of  David,  King  of  Scotland, 
whose  daughter  Cecily  was  wife  ot  William,  son  of  Stephen,  Earl  of  Albemarle 
(ob.  1179). 

1  See  the  author's  Airedale,  \>.  .2,31 

i    \V  hi  laker's  Craven,  3rd  ed.,  p    417.          j   Drake's  Eliorai  inn,  p.  363. 

"     l7(/c  Poll  Tax  2nd  Richard  11.  Whitaker's  1'nwn,  31-4  1  ed.,  p.   163. 

for  pedigree  of  Lindley,  of  York,  see  Dugdale's  I'isitalimi  »/  York  (1665-6); 
l'a\  cr\  /'filiifi-trs  of  families  <>/'  llic  Citv  <>>'  York  (1X42),  p.  i  ^  ;  and  Thornton's  Xntts  , 
II.,  301. 


112 

(2)  of  Robert  Brandling,  of  Leathley,*  by  whom  she  had  five  daughters, 
all  of  whom,  except  Alathea,  seem  to  have  predeceased  their  mother, 
who  died  i5th  March,  1664.  Alathea  married  Henry  Hitch,  Esq.,  son 
and  heir  of  Dr.  Robert  Hitch,  rector  of  Guiseley  and  Adel,  and  some 
time  Dean  of  York,  who  died  in  1676.!  By  this  marriage  Leathley 
came  to  the  Hitches.  Henry  Hitch  died  January  loth,  1701,  and 
according  to  a  memorial  of  him  in  Leathley  Church,  he  left  two  sons 
and  two  daughters ;  one  of  the  sons,  Robert,  succeeding  him  at 
Leathley,  where  he  died  October  2yth,  1723,  aged  53.  One  of  his 
daughters,  Alathea,  married  William  Lambert,  who  was  sheriff  of  York  in 
1729-304  In  the  Journal  of  John  Warburton,  F.R.S.,  the  celebrated 
antiquary,  and  Somerset  Herald,  is  an  entry,  dated  February  i3th, 


1   !  .?•-&   •'.  3      FIJI 

mi 


. 


LEATHLEY    HALL   Two   CENTURIES  AGO. 

1718,  recording  a  visit  Warburton  made  on  that  day  to  Leathley, 
where  he  was  the  guest  of  Mr.  Robert  Hitch.  Describing  his  journey 
from  Harrogate  by  Pannal  and  Stainburn,  he  says  he  "  left  Lynley 
village  on  the  right,  situated  on  the  point  of  a  hill,  and  at  half-a-mile 
yet  further  came  to  Leathley  village,  church,  town,  and  seat  of  Robert 
Hitch,  Esq.,  representative  in  Parliament  for  the  borough  of 
Knaresborough  [1715-22],  a  large  and  convenient  edifice  as  at  present 
improved  by  the  worthy  owner,  who  hath  been  at  great  expense  in 
adorning  and  beautifying  it  with  a  new  south  front,  a  wing  to  the  east 

*  \cc  Siirtees  Soc.  Pub.,  vol.  36,  p.  28,  &c. 

f  A  biography  of  Dr.  Hitch  is  preserved  among  the  Kenneth  MSS.  (vol.  52,  No. 
686),  in  the  British  Museum. 

£   Yofks.  Aich.JL,  xv.,  171  n 


H3 

;ind  outhouses,  and  offices,  gardens,  and  otlier  embellishments,  where  I 
staved  all  night."'  lie  also  sketched  the  old  house,  which  is  here 
reproduced  from  the  original  in  the  British  Museum. 

This  Robert  Hitch,  M.P.,  is  interred  in  the  family  vault  at  Leathley 
Church,  where  a  monument  records  with  what  honour  and  integrity  he 
served  his  king  and  country.  Of  his  family  of  two  sons  and  three 
daughters,  Henry,  who  was  registrar  of  the  West  Riding,  died  March 
2nd,  1765,  aged  62  ;  and  Alathea,  the  youngest,  married  John  Jordan, 
colonel  of  the  gth  Regiment  of  Dragoons.  She  died  in  1741,  leaving 
one  daughter  and  eventual  heiress,  who  married  a  Maude,  and  by  this 
family  the  Leathley  estates  were  sold  to  Walter  Ramsden  Favvkes. 

Richard  Fawkes,  of  Farnley,  who  died  in  1585,  married  Margaret, 
daughter  of  Sir  Thomas  Johnson,  Kt.,  whose  family  had  an  estate  at 
Farnley  and  Leathley.  Henry  Johnson,  I  find,  was  implicated  in  the 
Catholic  rebellion,  known  as  the  Pilgrimage  of  Grace,  and  in  1570  his 
estates  at  Leathley  were  surveyed,  but  the  commissioners  report  that 
il  his  lands  are  much  entangled,  and  he  has  sold  the  greater  part  his 
father  left  him,  and  what  he  has  left  he  has  conveyed  by  line  to  himself 
and  his  wife  and  their  heirs.'  He  built  the  old  Elizabethan  mansion 
at  Walton  Head,  in  the  township  of  Follitbot,  where  he  resided.  But 
how  or  where  he  died  I  have  not  ascertained.  Gallows  and  gibbet 
were  busy  in  many  a  Yorkshire  village  at  this  time,  and  there  was 
many  a  heart  that  felt  for  the  sufferers,  but  the  mouth  dare  not  open,  as 
the  blood-stain  reddened  upon  the  downthrow  of  the  monasteries,  and 
the  wreck  of  many  a  Wharfedale  home. 

The  most  notable  object  at  Leathley,  the  church,  which  does  not 
appear  ever  to  have  been  described,  occupies  a  well-chosen  site  on  a 
piece  of  rising  ground  formed  by  the  Kinderscout  grits,  and  commands 
a  wide  and  beautiful  view  southwards.  It  is  not  mentioned  in  Domesday t 
although  the  parish,  which  is  but  the  township  in  an  ecclesiastical 
sense,  is  not  unlikely,  from  what  I  have  already  adduced  respecting  the 
old  tribal  boundaries,  to  have  been  like  its  neighbour  Otley,  the  scene  of 
a  zealous  attachment  to  the  Christian  faith  long  anterior  to  the  Norman 
Conquest.  There  are  indications  about  the  present  church  which  seem 
to  shew  that  that  zeal  extended  so  far  back  as  the  days  of  the  early 
Celtic  ministry,  though  we  have  no  positive  knowledge  that  the  parish 
was  formed  until  after  the  Norman  settlement  in  the  eleventh  century. 
Consequently  it  is  pure  conjecture  to  assume  that  a  preaching-cross,  or 
even  a  wooden  fabric^  stood  here  in  the  Saxon  era,  as  at  Guiseley,  tor 

)'«rX-v.  Arcli.Jl.,  xv.,  7-j.         |   ( )tlier  local  churches  are  mentioned  in  this  record. 
\.  The  churches  and  domestic  buildings  in  Saxon  times  \\-ere  built  chiefly  of  wood, 
a  circumstance   that    may   be   noted   in   the  use  of  the. Saxon   verb,  to  build,  sfctimbriait, 
i.e.,  fa  timber, 


U4 

example,  dedicated  to  the  Saxon  Saint  Oswald,  to  which  the  church 
at  Leathley  is  also  generally  ascribed.* 

The  original  Norman  churches  when  they  possessed  towers,  had 
them  invariably  placed  over  the  centre  of  the  building ;  if  they  were 
without — as  at  Adel — these  were  afterwards  placed  at  the  west  end,  so 
as  not  to  interfere  with  services  in  the  church.  The  original  church  at 
Leathley,  however,  seems  to  have  been  an  uniform  structure ;  the  west 
tower  with  the  angles  of  the  nave,  converted  into  buttresses,  a  portion 
of  the  north  wall  and  the  chancel  arch,  being  the  only  remnants  of 
the  original  building.  They  are  similar  in  construction,  and  may  be 


LEATHLEY   CHURCH, 

even  of  late  Norman  date,  though  these  features  are  often  asserted 
to  be  Saxon.  The  appearances  may  be  due  to  the  fact  already  explained, 
of  the  thoroughly  Saxon  population  lingering  throughout  this  locality 
and  but  little  affected  by  any  foreign  influence  for  a  long  period  after 
the  Conquest.  I  need  only  point  out  how  the  lateness  is  indicated  by 
the  height,  position,  and  solidity  of  the  tower  (it  was  originally  built 
not  so  much  for  the  bells  as  for  habitation  and  refuge),  the  small, 

*  This  is  very  likely  the  true  dedication,  determined  probably  by  the  ascription  to 
St.  Oswald,  ot  the  Priory  of  Nostel,  founded  early  in  the  reign  of  Henry  I.  (Dugd.,  vi., 
i.,  91),  and  to  which  monastery  the  church  of  Leathley  was  afterwards  given. 


"5 

round-headed  lights,  without  baluster  shafts,  and  splayed  on  the  inside 
only  :  the  angle  quoining  of  dressed  stones,  and  at  twenty  feet  from 
the  ground  there  is  a  horizontal  course  of  the  same  masonry  ;  the 
absence  of  long  and  short  work  :  the  thickness  of  the  walls  (at  the  west 
door  they  are  50  inches  thick,  becoming  thinner  as  they  ascend*)  all 
proclaim  its  Xorman  age.  The  rough  rubble  masonry  with  its  widely- 
plastered  joints,  is  a  characteristic  of  both  the  Saxon  and  Xorman 
builders.  A>  the  extent  of  the  Norman  church  is  still  definable,  it  may 
In-  useful  to  give  the  actual  dimensions  of  the  exterior  and  interior  parts 


LEATHLEY   CHURCH    TOWER,   SHOWING   ANGLE    BUTTRESS. 


of  the  present  building.    The  measurements  were  taken  by  myself  about 
a  year  ago,  by  permission  (and  with  the  kind  assistance)  of  the  rector. 

Length  oi  exterior  oi  north  (Norman)  wall  of  chancel ^  tret  S  inchc-. 

''"•  do.  nave  ...          ...          ...  36    ,,    6       ,, 

Lenyth  of  nave  (interior)  from  the  front  of  the  tower-arch  to  the  front 

of  the  chancel-arch  ...        ...        ...        ...        ...        ...        ...  31    ,, 

Width  of  tower  (west  front)  outside  ...        ...        ...        ...        ...  19    ,,    2       ,, 

do.  of  angle  buttresses  (west  face)    ...        ...        ...    each      3    ,, 

Saxon  wall-  are  rarely  more  than  30  inches  thick.  At  St.  Patrick's  Chapel, 
lley-ham,  near  Lancaster,  they  are  jy  in.  thick,  and  the  doorway  (main  entrance  into 
the  Chapel),  is  32  inches  wide,  a  little  wider  than  the  average  of  Saxon  doorway-. 


n6 

Thickness  of  tower-arch  (bricked  up  behind  door)  ...  ...  about  3  feet  4  inches. 

do.           chancel-arch,  north  side          ...          ...  ...  ...  ...  3  ,,  4^  ,, 

do.                    do.          south  side        ...         ...  ...  ...  ...  3  ,,  ^  ,, 

Width  of  chancel-arch  below  imposts        ...         ...  ...  ...  ...  8  ,,  (> 

do.         tower-doorway  (inside),  at  step  (.see  plate  opposite)  ...  ...  3  ,,  4  ,, 

do.                           do.                  at  springing1  of  arch...  ...  ...  3  ,,  3^  ,, 

Height  of  tower-doorway  (inside)     ...         ...         ...  ...  ...  ...  6  ,,  2  ,, 

do.       from  present  floor-level  to  tower-step        ...  ...  ...  ...  3  ,, 

Length  of  choir  from  back  of  chancel-arch           ...  ...  ...  ...  21  ,,  6  ,, 

Width  of  chancel  at  altar         ...          ...          ...          ...  ...  ...  ...  i^  „  2  ,, 

do.         nave  between  the  north  and  south  piers  ...  ...  ...  19  ,,  6  ,, 

do.        north  aisle  from  pier          ...          ...          ...  ...  ...  ...  9  ,,  7  ,, 

do.         south  aisle  from  pier           ...          ...          ...  ...  ..  ...  9  ,,  5  ,, 

Diameter  of  octagonal  piers  ...         ...         ...         ...  ...  ...  ...  i  ,,  10  ,, 

A  remarkable  fact  in  connection  with  these  measurements  is  the 
truly  Celtic  plan  of  the  original  Norman  church,  the  nave  being  thirty- 
one  feet  long,  and  the  chancel  including  the  thickness  of  the  arch,  about 
twenty-five  feet.  Note  also  the  decided  Celtic  feeling  in  the  inclination, 
albeit  slight,  in  the  jambs  of  the  tower  doorway.  There  were  probably 
no  aisles  until  the  additions  were  made  in  the  fifteenth  or  early  sixteenth 
century.  The  total  length  outside,  excluding  the  tower,  is  noteworthy, 
being  sixty-one  feet  two  inches.* 

There  is  a  remarkable  and  very  interesting  rough-hewn  oaken 
door,  six  feet  two  inches  high,  filling  the  tower  arch,  inside  the  church, 
which  judging  from  the  elaborate  scroll-pattern  of  the  hinges  and 
stanchions  appears  to  be  of  scarcely  less  antiquity  than  the  tower  itself. 
(See  plate.,)  The  material  forming  the  hinges  is  of  rude-wrought 
hammered  iron  and  the  scrolls  cover  almost  the  whole  surface  of  the 
door.  The  principal  hinge  is  in  the  form  of  a  reversed  letter  C  (the  door 
being  hinged  on  the  north  side)  while  the  nailed  bands  have  double 
curls  arranged  along  the  top  and  bottom  edges;  the  design  being  not 
unlike  that  upon  the  ancient  door  of  Maxstoke  Priory  in  Warwickshire.! 

Above  this  tower-door  is  an  original  semi-circular  opening  forming  a 
window  to  the  second  chamber  of  the  tower,  which  latter  was  doubtless 
occupied  by  a  hermit,  watchman,  or  sacristan,  who  could  command  a 
view  of  the  altar  from  within.  It  is  about  4^  feet  high  in  front  and  is 

;;  The  usual  length  of  the  larger  Christian  Celtic  churches  was  sixty  feet,  and  this 
seems  to  have  been  the  case  both  in  Kngland  and  Ireland.  William  of  Malmesbury 
gives  a  minute  description  of  the  original  British  church  at  Glastonbury,  founded 
A.D.  63,  and  this  is  said  to  have  been  sixty  feet  long  anil  twenty-six  feet  wide,  almost 
exactly  the  size  of  the  original  church  at  Leathley.  This  apparently  proves  what  1  have 
before  advanced  that  Christianity  in  Wharfedale  owes  more  to  the  Celtic  St.  Columba 
than  to  the  Roman  St.  Paulinus,  and  a  careful  examination  along  with  measurements,  of 
many  of  our  early  churches,  would,  I  think,  tend  to  confirm  this.  Such  for  example 
as  Stainburn,  Kirk  Hammerton,  and  Kirkdale. 

f  See  also  Plate  liv.  (an  example  dated  1 160-80)  in  Sernirere  on  les  Oiw  rages  en  Per 
Forge  die  Moyen-Age  et  de  la  Renaissance,  par  I.  H.  de  Hefner-Alteneck. 


NORMAN    DOOR   AND   WINDOW,    LEATHLEY   CHURCH 


ri8 

splayed  to  a  depth  of  about  40  inches,  diminishing  downwards  to  the 
inner  opening  which  is  not  more  than  30  inches  high  and  18  inches 
wide  (see  plate).  The  semi-circular  chancel  arch  is  perfectly  plain, 
excepting  that  the  square  imposts  supporting  the  arch  have  a  simple 
line  moulding,  chamfered  beneath.  In  the  chancel  on  the  south  side 
is  a  piscina  having  a  triangular  canopy  with  crockets  and  finial.  The 
east  window,  a  late  Perpendicular  insertion,  has  consisted  formerly  of 
three  trefoil-headed  lights,  the  stanchions  of  which  have  been  broken 
off.  The  south  doorway  into  the  chancel  has  a  square  head  with 
hood-moulding  terminating  in  bearded  faces,  and  the  Spandrils  are 
decorated.  The  adjoining  three-light  windows  are  of  the  same  early 
sixteenth  century  character.  The  columns  of  the  nave  are  octagonal, 
supporting  pointed  arches,  on  the  capitals  of  which  are  various  raised 
designs,  hitherto  not  explained.  There  is  the  rose  (emblem  of  the 
Virgin),  the  fleurs-de-lis  (the  Holy  Trinity),  a  quatrefoil,  and  the  sacred 
monogram  IHC.  The  crest  or  badge  of  the  Percys  (a  crescent*} 
appears  on  one  of  the  capitals,  while  upon  another  is  their  fetter-lock 
badge  (looking  like  a  pair  of  eyes)  within  the  horns  of  the  crescent  (as 
in  the  church  at  Hubberholme).  The  crescent  is  a  very  ancient 
bearing  and  is  claimed  by  the  Percys  probably  by  reason  of  the 
prowess  of  some  early  member  of  the  family  during  the  wars  with  the 
Saracens.  Speaking  of  the  heroic  deeds  of  an  early  Percy  an  old 
ballad  says : 

In  his  soliekl  did  schyne.  a  Mont-  veryfying  her  lyght 
Which  to  all  the  coste  gave  a  perfytte  syght 
To  vaynquys  his  enemys  and  to  deth  them  persue 
And  there  fair  the  Perries  the  crescent  dotli  renew. 

The  fetter-lock  alone  occurs  on  the  seal  of  Hotspur,  while  the  earliest 
known  example  of  the  two  combined  is  for  Henry,  fourth  Earl  of 
Northumberland,  who  died  in  1489,  a  descendant  of  whom,  Eleanor, 
daughter  of  Jocelin  Percy,  married  William  Ferrand,  gent,  of  West 
Hall  near  Addingham,  of  whom  I  shall  speak  later  on.  The  Tau-cross 
also  appears  on  the  south  pier,  in  a  similar  position  to  that  in  the  old 
church  at  Weston.  It  is  also  sculptured  on  a  Norman  capital  in  the 
White  Tower,  London.  This  crux  ansata,  out  of  which  is  evolved 
Thor's  hammer,  is  an  emblem  of  security  and  may  serve  to  illustrate 
the  old  saying:  "Destroy  not  them  on  whom  ye  shall  see  the  letter 
T."f  There  are  two  brackets  on  the  centre  piers  on  the  north  and 

*  This  crest  (a  crescent,  arffent}  of  Henry  Percy,  who  was  killed  on  Towton  Field 
in  1461,  appears  in  the  window  of  St.  Dyonys  Church,  York. 

f  The  critx  ansata  or  "  key  of  life,"  the  primal  cross  "  of  life  everlasting-,"  is  a  very 
ancient  Egyptian  symbol,  and  its  appearance  in  England  is  probably  traceable  to  the 
westward  migration  of  the  Aryan  races.  From  Egypt  it  is  believed  to  have  spread  first 
among  the  Phoenicians  and  thence  throughout  the  whole  Semitic  world  from  Sardinia 
to  Susiana,  I  have  not  seen  it  noted  on  anv  church  in  Yorkshire. 


H9 

south  sides  for  statues,  or  possibly  to  hold  lamps.  In  the  east  window 
a  memorial  to  the  late  rector,  the  Rev.  .\\smu-h  Kawkes — are  three 
shields  of  arms  inscribed  with  the  names  of  Hitch,  Brandling,  and 
Aldburgh,  indicative  of  the  Hitch  family  connections,  previously 
alluded  to.  There  are  also  several  mural  tablets  here  to  the  sam>- 
family.  A  more  recent  one  commemorates  a  sadly  remembered  event. 
It  is  inscribed 

To  the  memory  of  Avscough  Hawksworth  Fawkes, 
Midshipman,  R.N.,  who  sank  with  1 1. M.S.  I'ictnriu, 
June  22,  i  Rg.'?,  aged  17  years.  "The  sea  shall  give  up  her  dead." 

There  are  stone  seats  in  the  porch,  which  suggest  a  time  when  it 
was  usual  to  pay  rents  or  discharge  other  obligations  within  the  porch 
of  the  parish  church.  The  door-step  in  the  porch  is  formed  of  a 
thirteenth  century  sepulchral  slab  ;  it  bears  an  incised  floriated  cross, 
with  the  points  of  the  shaft  turned  downward  (emblematic  of  humility).* 
There  are  also  some  interesting  mason-marked  stones.  One  of  the  bells 
bears  a  design  of  three  lions,  two  and  one,  the  two  uppermost  crowned. 

In  1869  the  church  underwent  a  very  thorough  and  careful 
restoration,  and  was  re-opened  for  service  by  the  Bishop  of  Ripon,  on 
December  i  yth  of  that  year.  An  entirely  new  roof  was  put  up  and  two 
new  windows  were  inserted,  one  at  the  east  end  and  the  other  on  the 
south  side.  The  old  high-backed  pews  were  replaced  by  low  open  ones, 
Some  of  the  old  pews  had  carved  panels,  bearing  various  owners' 
initials  and  dates,  the  oldest  being  marked  "R.A.,  1621."  A  new  organ 
was  also  placed  in  the  north  aisle.  These  substantial  improvements 
are  stated  to  have  cost  not  less  than  ^2000,  which  was  defrayed  entirely 
by  the  then  munificent  owner  of  the  estate,  Francis  Hawksworth  Fawkes, 
Esq.,  of  Farnley  Hall. 

That  the  ancient  structure  originated  as  I  have  stated  through  the 
liberality  of  the  mesne  lords  of  the  manor  after  the  Conquest,  appears 
further  confirmed  by  their  holding  five  geldable  carucates,  or  six 
hundred  acres,  a  tenth  part  of  which  was  as  usual,  assigned  for  the 
exclusive  endowment  of  the  priest. f  These  sixty  acres  still  represent 

*  Mr.  I.angdon  in  his  Early  Crosses  of  Cornwall  (1890),  gives  about  thirty  purpose-- 
for  which  he  found  these  valuable  Christian  memorials  were  being  used  in  Cornwall, 
including  gate-posts,  pig-troughs,  rubbing-stones,  door-steps,  £c.  One  has  continually 
to  deplore  the  base  service  to  which  these  early  and  often  beautiful  sculptures  have 
been  put. 

f  There  were  in  addition,  as  we  have  seen,  something  over  two  carucates  held  by 
the  Crown  in  1086.  The  manor  must  for  a  long  period  previously,  have  been  in  three 
open  fields,  with  a  three  year  rotation  of  crops,  consequently  the  carueate  consisted  of 
60  acres  in  each  field,  or  120  acres  for  geld,  while  the  third  lav  fallow.  That  this  locality 
\vashighlvfavoredinpointofcultivationatthisearlv  period  is  evident  from  the  fact 
that  the  whole  township  contains,  according  to  White's  Directory,  only  1,160  acres  and 
the  parish  i,64o~acres.  But*Kelly~gives'"2io5""acres"as'the>xtent"of  the'parish'and  i  S4'> 
acres  for  the  township,  while  the  6  in.  Ordnance  Map  gives  1^69  acres  for  the  township 
I.eathley  and  519'  '•  acres  for  Castley. 


I2O 

the  precise  extent  of  the  glebe,  the  irrevocable  gift  of  the  squire.  But 
the  benefice  was  originally  held  in  medieties,  a  practice  formerly 
common  in  Wharfedale,  and  one  not  to  be  approved  in  parishes  that 
were  small  and  poorly  endowed.  The  priors  of  Nostel  presented  to  a 
mediety  from  their  obtaining  the  advowson,  sometime  after  the  founding 
•of  the  Priory  about  1112,  until  1389  when  they  presented  to  the  whole 
church,  and  continued  to  do  so  up  to  the  dissolution  of  the  house  in 
1539.*  The  registry  of  the  see  of  York  commences  only  with  the  year 
1215,  and  in  1229  it  is  recorded  that  Nicholas  de  Lelay,  clerk,  was 
instituted  to  a  mediety  of  the  church  of  Leathley,  which  Robert  de  Lelay 
held  at  the  presentation  of  the  Prior  and  convent  "de  Parco;" 
reserving  the  pension  of  four  shillings  to  be  paid  by  the  parson.  From 
that  time  to  the  present  we  have  a  complete  list  of  the  rectors.  In 
1291  the  church  was  taxed  at  £6  133.  4d.,  and  in  the  new  taxation, 
consequent  upon  the  disastrous  raids  by  the  Scots  after  Bannockburn, 
when  all  Wharfedale  was  ravaged,  and  many  of  the  churches  ransacked 
or  destroyed,  it  was  reduced  to  £2.  The  living,  entered  in  the  King's 
Books  as  worth  ^7  as.  8d.,  is  now  declared  to  be  of  the  nett  annual 
value  of  £220,  and  the  patronage  is  vested  in  the  Bishop  of  the  diocese. 

The  Rev.  Henry  Canham  is  the  present  respected  rector,  whose 
twenty  years'  incumbency  will  always  be  remembered  with  affection  and 
advantage  in  any  future  estimate  of  religious  work  in  the  parish.!  There 
is  much  probability  that  the  Rev.  Peter  Langfellow,  who  was  rector  of 
Leathley  from  about  1500  to  1520,  and  (apparently  the  same  person) 
vicar  of  Calverley  from  1475  to  I5IO>  was  lineal  ancestor  of  the 
celebrated  American  poet.j  There  is  also  a  fifteenth  century  tomb-slab 
to  a  "Langfelaw"  in  Otley  church  which  I  have  mentioned  on  page  85. 
The  old  rectory  (long  since  pulled  down)  stood  in  a  field  a  little  north- 
west of  the  almshouses.  It  was  a  quaint  Tudor  building  with  central 
hall  open  to  the  roof  of  old  well-bodied  thatch.  There  were  no  upper 
chambers,  merely  a  central  hall  with  small  west  and  east  wings, 
respectively  the  kitchen  and  study  with  bedroom  of  the  priest.  In 
recent  times  the  central  hall  was  partitioned  in  two  apartments  and 
occupied  as  a  farm  house.  To  the  courtesy  of  the  present  rector,  Mr. 
Canham,  I  am  indebted  for  the  accompanying  sketch  of  it. 

Close  to  the  churchyard  gate  is  a  curious  example  of  a  town 
stocks,  having  five  apertures  in  the  oaken  fall-slide,  or  as  a  native 
humourously  put  it  to  me  "for  two  an'  a  hawf  pair  o'  legs."  It  is 

"""  A  chartulary  of  the  house  was  in  1632  in  possession  of  C.  Fairfax,  Esq.,  of  Menston. 

f  Mr.  Canham  in  former  years  was  an  enthusiastic  g-eolog-ist,  and  has  done  valuable 
work  among1  the  Tertiary  rocks.  He  has  an  excellent  collection  of  fossils. 

J  See  the  English  ancestry  of  Long-fellow  in  A'otes  atid  Queries  (1882)  sixth  Ser. 
vi.  421  &c.  ;  also  Margerison's  Calverley  Registers,  and  Leeds  Mercury  Supp.  (N  &  Q.) 
for  April  and  May,  1882. 


121 

therefore  to  he  inferred  that  provision  has  been  made  for  the  unfortunate 
owners  of  a  single  leg.  One  of  the  pillars  of  the  stocks  is  about  five 
feet  high  and  has  traces  of  old  shackle-irons  near  the  top.  It  has 
evidently  been  used  as  a  whipping-post  in  those  "good  old  times" 
when  it  was  customary  to  flog  wrong-doers  publicly  until  the  bared 
back  became  "bloodie  by  reasone  of  such  flogging.''  The  horseing 
steps  adjoin.  Public-houses,  often  tempting  to  much  dissipation  among 
the  natives  in  rural  villages,  are  now  a  thing  of  the  past  at  Leathley 
(the  old  Sun  having  been  long  closed),  and  there  is  now  no  inn  between 
Otley  or  Pool  and  Rigton,  four  miles  beyond  Leathley.  But  there  is 
an  ample  supply  of  pure  water  which  issues  from  springs  where  the 


*^%mst^^m. 


OLD    RECTORY,    LEATHLEY. 

rock  rests  on  the  shale.  One  such  well  is  on  the  Stainburn  road,  a 
litMe  below  the  rectory,  where  I  copied  the  following  admonitory 
inscription,  cut  in  front  of  it  and  bearing  the  date  1879  : 

Reader,  Hear  what  Jesus  Christ  says:  "Whosoever  drinketh  of  this  water  shall 
thirst  again.  But  whosoever  drinketh  of  the  water  that  I  shall  give  him,  shall  never 
thirst."  John  iv.  i.V'4- 

"  If  any  man  thirst  let  him  come  unto  ME  and  drink."     John  vii.  37. 

The  Poll  Tax  of  1378  shews  that  Leathley  was  at  that  time  a 
famous  place  for  clothes-making,  there  being  no  fewer  than  four  tailors 
in  the  village,  who  probably  obtained  the  cloth  from  Otley  and  made 
up  suits  for  soldier,  monk,  and  farmer.  The  village  had  also  its  arrow- 
maker,  who  made  bows  and  finished  arrows  for  disposal  in  the  market 
at  Otley.  Many  a  Leathley-made  arrow  has  doubtless  shot  the  wild 


122 

game  in  Washburndale  and  on  the  surrounding  common.  Early  in  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth  there  was  a  dispute  as  to  the  bounds  of  the 
common  of  Leathley,  and  an  action  was  entered  against  the  Rev. 
Thos.  Holme,  rector,  and  the  inhabitants  of  Leathley,  touching  the 
boundaries,  as  some  encroachment  appears  to  have  been  made  on  the 
Royal  Forest.  In  1575  the  depositions  of  some  old  men  were  taken 
at  Lindley  by  Sir  Wm.  Ingleby,  Kt,  Chr.  Mather,  John  Pulleyn  and 
John  Waterhouse.  The  following  are  the  particulars  which  I  find 
among  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster  Pleadings. 

BOUNDARIES  OF  LEATHLEY  COMMON. 

Robert  Brodebelt  of  Letheley  husdandman  72,  saith  that  Leathley  Common 
beginneth  at  the  north  end  of  the  town  of  Letheley  and  so  g-oeth  to  a  place  called 
Dunyngheathwayte  and  from  thence  up  Westbecke  to  Lansheysyke  and  from  thence 
to  Cocklakes  and  from  thence  to  Blacklowe  and  then  to  the  Queens  gate  and  then  to  a 
stone  called  Hawray  stone  standing  north  east  from  Lanshay  grene  and  from  thence 
to  a  stone  north  from  Little  Almoscliffe  and  so  to  a  meare  stone  standing  north  west 
from  Little  Almoscliffe  and  then  to  Whitnal  stone  standing  westward  from  Little 
Almoscliffe  which  by  a  bounder  that  he  sawe  shewed  by  the  Earl  of  Northumberland 
three  score  years  since  did  declare  the  stone  to  be  a  bounder  between  the  bondes  of 
Knaresborough  Letheley  and  Lyndley.  And  from  thence  to  a  place  called  Thackslade 
being  south  from  Sandwith  Bridge  being  a  bounder  between  Letheley  and  Lyndley 
and  from  thence  to  Blackpottes  and  from  thence  to  a  great  stone  in  the  lower  end  of 
Guberslade  and  then  following  an  old  eastern  dyke  over  Knapesyde  to  a  mere  stone 
called  Cable  stone  which  is  a  bound  between  Leathley  and  Lyndley.  And  then  west 
to  a  little  syke  called  Purle  syke  being  at  the  end  of  the  lane  coming  into  Lyndley 
towne  and  so  following  Purle  syke  to  Ashdib  and  so  to  the  water  of  Washburne.  And 
from  thence  to  Letheley  town.  Humphrey  Hoclgshon  77  Thos.  Bradeley  60  husband- 
man Richard  Jenkinson  husbandman  56  depose  as  above. 

In  1752  an  Act  was  obtained  for  enclosing  the  waste.  The  local 
occupations  now  are  purely  agricultural,  and  there  are  some  large 
farm-holdings ;  one  of  the  tenants,  Mr.  Wm.  Newby,  being  assessed  to 
the  Poor  Rate  at  ,£638,  and  another,  Mr.  Abm.  Hudson,  being  rated 
at  ^504.  In  1807  I  find  five  Leathley  men  voted  at  York  in  the 
election  of  knights  of  the  shire.  Their  names  were  John  Booth, 
yeoman;  Jeremiah  Booth,  jun.,  miller;  Jeremiah  Booth,  gentleman; 
Matthias  Stead,  farmer;  and  Francis  Todd,  farmer. 

There  is  an  interesting  book  of  briefs  preserved  among  the 
Leathley  records,  which  if  they  provide  little  information  of  local  value, 
tell  us  at  any  rate  of  events  that  were  stirring  England  at  the  time. 
They  begin  with  the  year  1680  and  run  through  the  period  of  the 
Great  Revolution.  Under  the  year  1693  I  find  this  entry,  which  serves 
as  a  reminder  of  old-time  trading  difficulties  with  Africa  and  the  East. 
For  a  long  period  the  North  African  sea-pirates  plundered  every 
English  and  foreign  merchant  vessel  they  could  lay  hands  on,  taking 
the  men  prisoners  and  demanding  heavy  ransoms. 

Collected  in  ye  parish  of  Leathley  6th  and  7th  October,  by  vertue  of  their  Maj1^8 
Letters  Patent  for  ye  redemption  of  poore  distressed  captives  in  Algiers,  Sallay,  and 
other  places  in  Barbary  and  ye  coaste  of  Africa  ye  sum  of  i6s.  and  3d.  paid  by  Thomas 


123 

Kradlrv,  pn  •-(  lit  rhurrluvardrii,  to  \r  hand  ot  mi-  Thomas  Holmes  (official  to  \ •<• 
KVvtTcnd  Dr.  Chrtwood,  An-luli-aron  ol'  vc  \\Vsi  Riding  n(  Vorkc)  who  hath  ffivon 
acquittance  tor  vr  -aim-. 

Then  ,-igain  in  1700  the  sum  of  2 is.  91!.  was  collected  at  Leathley 
for  "  the  redemption  of  poore  Protestant  captives  under  the  Empire  of 
Fez  and  Morocco,"  and  in  1703^2  55.  id.  was  collected  "for  and 
towards  the  support  and  maintenance  of  the  poore  distressed  Protestants, 
late  inhabitants  within  ye  principality  of  Orrange,  and  by  Popish 
cruelty  banished  from  thence."  In  1684  there  was  collected  in  the 
church  the  sum  of  4s.  nd.  towards  the  relief  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Runswick  in  the  North  Riding,  who  had  lately  suffered  by  flood  and 
earthquake.  Is  anything  further  known  of  this  "earthquake"? 

The  old  school  and  almshouses  at  Leathley  are  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  road  to  the  church.  They  were  founded  in  1769  by  Mrs. 
Ann  Hitch,  who  left  £12  a  year  for  the  master,  and  £4  each  for  four 
almspeople,  out  of  lands  at  Felliscliffe,  appointing  trustees,  among 
whom  were  the  lord  of  the  manor  and  the  rectors  of  Leathley  and  Adel. 
An  interesting  inmate  of  one  of  these  dwellings  was  the  late  Mrs 
Elizabeth  Watson,  whom  I  visited  on  Sept.  27th,  1898,  or  about  a 
month  before  her  death,  which  took  place  on  Oct.  26th.  She  was  then 
in  her  1041)1  year,  and  to  all  appearances  in  the  best  of  health;  she 
told  me  she  had  not  got  over  the  effects  of  a  fall  some  months 
previously,  yet  her  freshness  and  vivacity  were  astonishing.  She  was 
rather  a  little  woman  with  small  features,  black  hair,  (with  scarcely  a 
trace  of  grey)  and  a  fresh,  ruddy  complexion,  heightened  somewhat 
by  the  scarlet  shawl  she  was  accustomed  to  wear  while  sunning  herself 
at  the  door  of  her  humble  dwelling ;  a  little  ruse,  excusable  enough,  to 
attract  public  attention.  Her  hearing  and  sight  were  wonderfully 
good,  and  she  could  pick  up  a  pin  or  thread  a  needle  without  the  aid 
of  spectacles.*  In  answer  to  my  enquiry  whether  she  had  walked 
much  lately,  she  said  that  the  accident  above  mentioned  had  prevented 
her  from  venturing  far  from  home,  but  in  the  summer  previous  (then 
aged  102)  she  had  walked  with  her  "baby"  (her  youngest  daughter, 
aged  63)  with  whom  she  lived,  to  Otley  and  back,  a  distance  of  about 
five  miles.  Like  all  long-livers  she  was  partial  to  outdoor  life  and 
exercise.  She  was  blessed  to  the  end  with  a  clear  memory,  and 
amongst  the  singular  recollections  she  related  was  that  of  seeing  the 
last  man  gibbeted  on  Attercliffe  Moor,  near  Sheffield,  for  robbing  the 
mail.  Presently  I  approached  her  on  her  general  habits  of  living  and 
remarked,  "  Well,  I  suppose  Mrs.  Watson  you  will  like  a  drop  of  gin  in 
your  tea,  aye?"  "Gin!"  she  exclaimed  quite  wrathfully,  "I've  been  a 

*  In  this  respect  she  resembled  another  Leathley  centenarian,  one  John  Proctor, 
who  when  in  his  second  century  was  able  to  read  without  spectacles, 


T24 

teetotaller  all  my  life.  Them  'at  wants  to  be  ailin  let  'em  tak  to  drink," 
she  went  on  to  say,  "but  them  'at  wants  to  keep  reight  they  mun  stick 
to  waiter,  there's  nowt  like  gooid  watter,  thank  God."  I  quite  agreed 
with  the  old  lady  that  temperance  and  regular  exercise  are  to  be 
counted  the  main  factors  to  longevity,  yet  what  are  we  to  make  of  the 
case  of  the  man  Whittington,  of  Hellingdon,  who  died  at  the  age  of 
104,  and  who  attributed  his  length  of  years  to  the  astounding  fact  that 
he  drank  daily  a  full  pint  of  the  best  London  gin  ! 

Mrs.  Watson  was  born  at  South  Hampole,  near  Doncaster,  on 
Sept.  ist,  1795,  and  was  christened  at  Hooton  Pagnell  church,  when 
about  ten  years  old.  Her  father,  George  Cut  (who  seems  to  have  been 
blessed  with  a  steady,  unperturbed  nature),  was  coachman  for  nearly 
forty  years  to  the  Rev.  Geo.  Allott,  rector  of  South  Kirkby,  and  died  at 
the  age  of  no.  He  had  a  brother,  an  army  pensioner,  who  had  been 
wounded  at  Waterloo,  and  who  lived,  it  is  said,  to  be  115.  Mrs. 
Watson  was  the  eldest  of  a  family  of  ten,  and  she  herself  was  the 
mother  of  thirteen  children.  Her  husband,  George  Watson,  who  had 
been  a  hind  in  the  service  of  Lord  Mexborough,  lived  to  be  99,  and 
his  grandmother  is  stated  to  have  attained  the  age  of  107.  Altogether 
the  family  longevity  seems  to  have  been  contagious. 

Some  little  distance  from  the  village  stands  the  old  manor-house 
of  Leathley,  the  seat  of  Thos.  Lister  Ingham,  Esq.  It  is  an  interesting 
Elizabethan  edifice,  but  as  before  remarked,  with  extensive  additions 
made  principally  in  the  early  part  of  the  last  century.  For  many 
years  after  the  Hitches  left  it,  the  hall  was  tenanted  by  farmers.  The 
surroundings  are  beautifully  rural  and  retired,  which  the  summer 
rambler  will  appreciate  as  he  passes  the  vicinity  of  the  hall  into  an 
old  green  lane  that  leads  to  the  highway  for  Pool  and  Otley. 

It  is  also  a  pleasant  walk  past  Riffa*  Wood  hill  and  by  briery 
lanes,  banked  with  wild  flowers,  to  the  old  Domesday  vill  of  Castley, 
in  the  parish  of  Leathley.  A  more  retired  and  secluded  hamlet  than 
this  it  would  be  difficult  to  find,  yet  in  its  hey-day  it  has  been  a  place 
of  no  small  importance,  boasting  of  an  ancient  earthen  camp  or  castle- 
hill,  a  manor-house  and  a  hall.  The  latter  I  gather  from  Thoresby, 
writing  in  1702,  was  built  shortly  before  that  time  by  "Mr.  Robert 
Dyneley,  the  second  son  of  my  late  good  old  friend,  Robert  Dyneley, 
Esq.,"  who  was  buried  at  Bramhope,  in  May,  1728.  The  hall  is  now 
a  farm-house  and  is  raised  on  an  older  structure,  once  the  home  of  the 
Arthingtons.  Since  the  Leeds  and  Harrogate  railway  was  made, 

*  Riffa,  from  the  Norm.  Fr.  rive,  Ital.  riva,  Lat.  ripa,  a  river  or  stream-bank.  The 
Riffa  Beck  here  bounds  the  old  Forest  of  Knaresbro',  doubtless  on  an  old  tribal 
boundary.  Riva,  on  the  bank  of  Lake  Como ;  and  Rief,  on  Lake  Garda,  have  the  same 
meaning ;  so  has  Ripon  on  the  Yore. 


rutting  through  Castley  and  necessitating  huge  embankments  which 
half  conceal  it,  the  village  has  steadily  declined  in  population.  In 
1831  (the  top  year  of  its  modern  prosperity),  there  were  between 
twenty  and  thirty  houses  in  the  place  including  an  inn,  (the  old  Malt 
Shovf/,}  with  a  census  return  of  118.  Now  the  population  is  less  than 
half  that  number  while  the  inhabited  houses  are  about  a  dozen. 

Castley,  in  Saxon  times  had  been  in  two  manors,  which  in  1086 
were  farmed  by  a  homager  of  William  de  Percy,  one  Ebrard,  the  same 
who  held  the  Percy  lands  at  Leathley.  In  1284  the  manor  was  held  by 
Richard  de  Goldsburgh  and  William  de  Castellay,  for  the  fourth  part  of 
a  Knight's  Fee,  of  the  heirs  of  Percy.  In  1315  the  same  William  de 
Castellay,  or  his  son  of  that  name,  was  returned  as  lord  of  the  manor  of 
Castley,  but  the  Goldsboroughs  continued  to  hold  some  land  at  Castley 
down  to  the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  The  family  of  De  Castley  was, 
like  the  De  Leathleys,  in  all  probability  descendants  of  the  pre-Conquest 
owners,  and  their  names  appear  in  early  land  transactions  and  as 
witnesses  to  local  grants  and  quit-claims  from  an  early  period.*  On  the 
south  side  of  the  railway,  near  the  old  manor-house,  is  a  piece  of  ground 
known  as  Chapel  Field ;  doubtless  the  site  of  a  small  oratory 
founded  by  one  of  these  Castleys.  A  stone  coffin,  I  am  told,  was  found 
here  some  years  ago.  A  similar  oratory  still  exists  at  Downholme, 
near  Richmond,  and  there  was  one  at  Hartlington,  near  Burnsall,  and 
others  in  Yorkshire,  of  whose  history  nothing  is  known. f  A  John  de 
Castlay  and  Richard  de  Castelay  appear  in  the  Poll  Tax  of  1378,  and 
a  Richard  de  Castelay  gave  lands  at  Bingley  to  the  monks  of  Drax.J 
Members  of  the  family  were  liberal  benefactors  to  Fountains  Abbey§ 
William,  son  of  Gilbert  de  Castelai  gave  two  oxgangs  of  land  here,  with 
his  share  of  the  mill  and  its  pool,  and  the  services  of  Henry  de 
Westcoght  for  the  said  mill,  reserving  the  right  of  having  his  corn 
ground  there  mulcture  free ;  they,  the  monks  of  Fountains,  paying  three 
shillings  to  the  canons  "de  Parco." 

The  canons  of  Bolton  Priory  had  the  mill  at  CastleyH"  but  where  the 
old  mill  stood  or  when  it  was  demolished  no  one  now  seems  to  know. 
The  manor  afterwards  followed  the  fortunes  of  its  neighbour,  Leathley, 
passing  through  the  hands  of  the  Lindleys,  Hitches,  and  Maudes,  to 
the  present  lord  of  Farnley.  The  Maudes  appear  to  have  been 
connected  with  Leathley  at  an  early  date,  for  among  the  deeds  at 
Farnley  Hall  is  one  relating  to  Fountains  Abbey  lands  in  Stainburn, 

*  See  Pedes  Finium  Ebot  (A.D.  1224)  Surtees  Soc.  Pub.  xciv.  85. 

f  See  the  author's  Richnmndshire,  pages  218,  347,  368,  &c. 

£  .SVr  the  author's  Old  Bingley  p.  1 15.     §  Burton's  Mon.  Ebor.  p.  191. 

€     S,,  ( 'ompotus  of  Bolton  Abbey  for  i  290  :  Whitaker's  Craven,  3rd  ed.,  pp.  449,  4=55. 


witnessed  by  "  William  Mohaut  de  Litheley."  The  old  manor-house  has 
not  been  occupied  since  1896,  and  is  now  fast  falling  to  ruin;  yet  what 
a  grand  situation  it  occupies,  high  above  old  Wharfe,  commanding  a 
charming  sweep  of  woodland  and  river.  'Tis  a  beautiful  natural  picture, 
and  a  perpetual  feast,  one  would  think,  to  the  tenant  of  this  historic 
place !  When  I  last  visited  the  spot  a  year  ago,  it  was  a  bright  autumn 
morning,  and  the  gray  old  ruined  mansion  looked  calmly  beautiful  in 
its  loneliness,  with  its  ancient  bit  of  garden-ground  run  wild  with  still 
blooming  marigolds  and  bed  of  sweet  violets.  An  air  of  old-time  poesy 
breathed  about  the  whole  place,  and  fixed  me  to  the  spot  enraptured 
for  many  moments.  How  the  mind  of  the  poet  and  the  antiquary 
fondly  turns  to  scenes  such  as  these,  recalling  the  many  changes  of  the 
place  and  of  faces  and  forms  that  have  vanished,  and  of  the  fleeting 
works  of  man,  while  Nature  alone  is  ever  young  and  fair.  The  same 
rivers  do  run,  the  merry  becks  do  sing,  the  green  fields  are  renewed, 
and  the  hedge-rows  put  forth  the  sweet  scent  of  May-bloom,  just  as  they 
did  in  the  days  of  Norman  and  Saxon  and  Dane.  Perhaps  the  old 
hedged  camp  (which  may  have  originated  the  name  of  Castle-hay)  close 
to  the  railway  a  short  distance  to  the  north,  may  link  the  lords  of 
pre-Conquest  ages  with  the  owners  of  the  old  Castley  manor-house  now 
ebbing  away ! 


CHAPTER    VII. 


ROUND  ABOUT   POOL. 


Pool  Bridge  A  rare  It-rn  —  History  of  Pool— Local  monastic  possessions  -Old  families 
— Old  trades  and  inns  -The  church — Picturesque  aspects — Local  mansions— Leeds 
and  Otley  turnpike — Cycling  scenes— Caley  Hall,  an  old  hunting-lodge  of  the 
Gascoignes — Park  stocked  with  deer,  zebras,  &c. 


GREEN  and  flowery  lane  leads  from  ancient  Castley,  just 
described,  over  Pool  Bridge  to  the  pleasant  village  of 
Pool,  still  in  the  old  parish  of  Otley.  The  fields  on  the 
river  adjacent  to  the  bridge  are  called  Street  Closes,  a 
name  that  suggests  the  vicinity  of  a  Roman  road,  but 
the  Roman  road  from  Adel  to  Illdey  passed  a  good  mile  to  the  south 
of  the  river.  Pool  Bridge  is  a  fine  broad  structure,  well-known  to  certain 
naturalists  up  to  its  being  re-pointed  some  years  ago,  as  harbouring  in 
its  crevices  a  very  rare  fern,  Ceterach  officinarum,  or  scale-fern,  though 
how  it  became  fixed  in  such  a  spot  and  continued  there  year  after  year, 
has  always  been  a  mystery.  The  fern  is  now  almost  extinct  in 
Yorkshire,  though  quite  recently  I  have  seen  it  wild  in  two  places 
between  Dent  Head  and  Sedbergh,  and  I  have  also  found  it  in  profusion 
in  the  limestone  tracts  about  Loch  Corrib  in  Connemara.  In  the  Act 
obtained  in  1 793  for  widening  and  repairing  certain  roads  &c.  in  the 
parish,  it  was  ordered  that  "there  shall  be  a  convenient  bridge  for 
carriages,  erected  over  the  river  Wharfe  at  or  near  Pool,  and  the  roads 
repaired  from  thence  over  the  west  side  of  a  field  called  Becklands, 
through  the  village  of  Leathley,  and  over  the  west  end  of  Leathley 
Common  to  Stainburn  Beck"  &c. 

In  Domesday,  Pool  appears  as  Pouele,  doubtless  from  the  A-S.  pol, 
cognate  with  the  Celt,  pwll,  a  pool  or  lake,  like  the  famous  Poole  in 
Dorset,  associated  with  the  Danish  ravages,  and  Blackpool,  the  well- 
known  Lancashire  sea-side  resort,  named  from  a  large  marsh,  now 
drained.  Poulton,  near  Blackpool,  and  Poulton,  near  Morecambe, 
have  the  same  significance.  Our  Wharfedale  Pool  was  included  in  the 
original  grant  to  the  see  of  York,  and  was  held  at  an  early  period  by 
the  Goldsburgh  family  of  the  Archbishops.  It  is  mentioned  in  Kirkby's 
Inquest  (1284-5),  and  in  the  Nomina  Villarum  (1315)  Ricardus  de 
Goldesburgh  is  returned  as  lord  of  the  manor  of  Pouill.  The  manor 
continued  in  possession  of  this  family  till  1596,  when  Richard 
Goldsborough,  Esq.,  and  Elizabeth,  his  wife,  sold  the  same  to  Michael 


128 

Wentworth,  Esq.,  of  Creskeld,  who  in  1599  purchased  Woolley  from 
their  kinsfolk,  the  Woodroves.*  Sir  George  Wentworth,  who  married 
a  daughter  of  Thomas,  Lord  Fairfax,  and  who  died  in  1660,  left  the 
manors  of  Pool,  Creskeld,  Maltby,  Arthington,  Wadlands,  and  Bracken- 
holme,  to  be  divided  amongst  his  three  daughters.  The  manor  of 
Pool  is  now  held  by  Fred.  Hawksworth  Fawkes,  Esq.,  J.P.,  of  Farnley. 

The  monks  of  Arthington  and  Kirkstall  had  lands  in  Pool.f  Also 
Malger,  son  of  Wm.  de  Pouella,  gave  all  his  land  in  Castley,  being 
three  acres  on  the  east  side  of  the  way  or  ford,  called  Haldwadford  in 
Poolholme,  in  Castley,  to  the  monks  of  Fountains,  which  was  confirmed 
by  Robert,  son  of  Wm.  Bram  de  Powel.  The  name  of  this  old  family 
of  De  Pool  or  Pouil,  occurs  in  local  deeds  of  early  date,  but  the  first 
dated  mention  I  find  in  the  Great  Roll  of  the  Exchequer,  where  Hugo 
de  Pouilla  renders  account  of  five  marks  due  from  lands,  nth  Henry  II. 
(1164).  The  family  had  also  property  in  Farnley  in  the  reign  of 
King  John,  as  appears  by  fine  entered  in  1202  between  Thomas  fitz 
Hugh  and  Serlo  de  Pouele  and  others,  respecting  a  quit-claim  of  thirty 
acres  of  land  with  appurtenances  in  that  place.  The  name  is  not 
found  in  the  Pool  poll-tax  of  A.D.  1378,  although  it  was  then  surviving 
in  the  neighbourhood  at  Lindley.  For  fully  a  century  following  this 
dat  ,  we  have  little  knowledge  of  either  people  or  events  in  Pool.  In 
the  Subsidy  Roll  for  Pool  for  the  year  1523  appears  the  names  of  John 
Yngland,  William  Smethe,  Thos.  Rawlynson,  Henry  Laghelyn,  John 
Tomlynson,  Henry  Myrghefeld,  and  Wm.  Skachard.  The  Wentworths, 
who  obtained  the  manor  of  Pool  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  were  of  the 
same  family  as  of  Wentworth  Woodhouse,  and  progenitors  of  the 
eminent  but  unfortunate  statesman,  Thomas,  Earl  of  Strafford,  who  was 
born  on  Good  Friday,  1593,  at  the  London  house  of  his  maternal 
grandfather,  Mr.  Robert  Atkinson,  a  Bencher  of  Lincoln's  Inn.  Sir 
Thomas,  afterwards  Earl,  it  may  be  noted,  had  in  1620-1  by  some 
means  got  possessed  of  the  patronage  ot  Kirkby  Malham  Church,  and 
the  family  had  also  at  this  time  various  relationships  with  families  in 
Wharfedale  and  Upper  Airedale. 

The  Atkinsons,  who  were  originally  seated  in  Westmorland,  and 
afterwards  at  Leeds,  also  appear  as  landowners  at  Pool  in  the 
seventeenth  century.  Among  the  Norcliffe  Evidences  at  Langton 
Hall  are  a  number  of  deeds  relating  to  the  Atkinsons  of  Leeds  and 
Creskeld,  near  Pool.  William  Atkinson,  of  Creskeld,  by  his  will  dated 

*See  Yorks.  Archl.JL,  vol.  xii.,  p.  5,  17. 

f  Burton's  Mon.  Ebor.  p.  89,  295.  In  1459  James  Cawdray  paid  2s.  rent  t<>  Kirkstall 
Abbey  for  a  little  meadow  in  Poell  field  (Thoresby  Soc.  Pub.  ii.  12).  The  meadow 
evidently  described  in  the  original  grant  as  Dipe-Ker. 


I2Q 

Dec.  5th,  1682,  desires  to  be  buried  at  Adel,  and  leaves  his  son  and 
heir,  Henry,  lands  in  Pool  called  Hardcastle  Farm,  besides  certain 
property  to  other  of  his  children.*  In  1694  the  family  sold  to  the 
Garforths  certain  messuages  &c.  at  Pool,  called  Dawcroft,  Red  Ing, 
Sun  Ing,  &c.  Henry  Atkinson  was  living  at  Caley  Hall  at  this  time 
and  married  in  1722  a  daughter  of  Francis  Fawkes,  M.P.,  of  Farnley, 
by  whom  he  had  a  son,  Henry,  who  died  without  issue.f 

About  a  century  ago  the  woollen  cloth  trade  was  somewhat 
extensively  carried  on  at  Pool,  until  in  the  winter  of  1795,  the  fulling- 
mills  of  Messrs.  Close  &  Co.  were  almost  wholly  destroyed  by  fire,  and 
damage  was  done  to  the  extent  of  about  ^2,000.  They  were  soon 
afterwards  run  as  paper-mills  by  Messrs.  Weir  &  Co.J  Subsequently  the 
woollen  manufacture  was  carried  on  by  Messrs.  Millthorp  and  Burnley, 
and  there  was  also  at  the  time  (now  about  seventy  years  ago)  a  good 
trade  done  in  the  manufacture  of  washleathers,  as  well  as  in  paper- 
making  and  in  the  making  of  paste-board.  There  were  then  three  inns 
in  the  village,  the  White  Hart,  the  Craven  Heifer,  and  a  beer-house. 
The  Rev.  A.  E.  Meredith,  vicar  of  Pool,  about  six  years  ago  purchased 
one  of  the  inns  and  converted  it  into  a  temperance-refreshment  house, 
and  the  old  beer-house  he  has  leased  and  since  used  as  a  Parish  Room. 
In  1898  Mr.  Meredith  was  succeeded  by  the  Rev.  H.  A.  Woodhouse, 
who  had  been  senior  curate  at  Otley. §  Pool  Hall,  at  the  west  end  of 
the  village,  is  a  last  century  erection,  built  on  the  site  of  an  older 
mansion,  the  home  of  several  notable  families  alluded  to  in  other  parts 
of  this  work. 

The  church  at  Pool,  formerly  a  small  building  with  belfry,  and 
prior  to  18 79 'when  the  parish  was  formed,  a  chapel-of-ease  to  Otley, 
stands  very  pleasantly  about  the  middle  of  the  village.  It  was  enlarged 
in  1840  and  the  tower  was  built  at  the  same  time.  Its  walls  and  the 
surrounding  graveyard  are  a  picture  of  luxuriant  rusticity,  clothed  and 

*  Yorks.  Anhl.  Jl.   iii.   76. 

f  For  Pedigree  of  Atkinson  w  Burke's  Landed  (ientn1. 

t  A  singular  and  forgotten  incident  may  here  be  mentioned.  In  1793  while  three 
workmen  were  doing-  .some  repairs  to  the  cotton-mills  on  the  Wharfe  at  Otley,  the  river 
suddenly  rose  and  overthrew  the  platform  on  which  thev  were  --landing-.  All  three  men 
were  drowned,  and  two  of  the  bodies  were  immediately  afterwards  recovered,  but  that 
of  the  third,  one  Wm.  Standeven,  could  not  be  found,  nor  was  it  discovered  until 
fourteen  years  afterwards  (May,  1807),  when  the  completely  skeletoni/ed  body  wa- 
found  lodged  between  two  stones  in  Pool  Walk  Mill  dam.  This  remarkable  discovery 
was  made  while  searching  the  river  for  a  notorious  character  named  William  Lamb, 
who  was  thought  to  have  been  drowned  after  a  drinking  bout  when  on  his  way  home 
to  Stainburn.  Lamb  had  only  three  weeks  before  been  whipped  in  Otley  Market  Place 
for  theft.  His  body  was  afterwards  found  near  Hare  wood  Bridge. 

>j  A  complete  list  of  the  curates  of  Pool  has  not  been  published.  In  1675-6  John 
riiomlinsoti  was  licensed  t<>  the  curacy  of  Pool,  Yarks.  Anhl.Jl.  ii.  i  10 


covered  as  they  are  with  trailing  ivy  and  roses,  tall,  climbing  fuchsias, 
ferns,  and  a  variety  of  other  sweet  emblems  of  mortality.  There  are 
also  some  particularly  fine  weeping  ash-trees  in  the  burial-yard.  The 
chancel  was  added  in  1891  as  a  memorial  to  Mrs.  Francis  Meredith, 
mother  of  the  late  vicar.  It  is  built  after  the  manner  of  early  Christian 
churches  in  the  form  of  a  Roman  basilica,  and  has  three  single  colored 
lights  at  the  sides.  On  a  small  brass  on  the  chancel  floor  is  inscribed : 

John  Pullein,  April  5,  1842;  Ann  Pullein,  March  17,  1851;  Fanny  Pullein,  March  29, 
1856;  John  Pullein,  March  12,  1866. 

There  are  also  other  memorials  in  the  church  to  the  families  of 
Atkinson,  of  Caley,  Stott,  Fieldhouse,  and  Curry.  In  the  churchyard  is 
a  handsome  granite  monument  to  the  memory  of  George  Wood,  Esq., 
M.A.,  Oxon,  of  the  Inner  Temple,  J.P.,  who  died  at  Caley  Hall,  in 
the  parish  of  Pool,  in  1879,  aged  54.  Also  a  similar  monument  to 
Col.  Wm.  Child,  late  of  Troutbeck,  in  the  parish  of  Pool,  who  was 
founder  and  for  twenty-seven  and  a  half  years  Commanding  Officer  of 
the  2nd  West  York  (Leeds)  Engineer  Volunteers.  He  died  in  1889, 
aged  67.  There  are  also  other  beautiful  and  noteworthy  memorials 
in  this  pretty  churchyard. 

Many  of  the  houses  of  the  gentry  about  Pool  are  most  pleasantly 
situated,  and  have  charming  gardens  around  them.  Troutbeck,  which 
I  have  just  mentioned,  was  built  by  Col.  Child,  and  is  now  owned  and 
occupied  by  Thos.  Swallow,  Esq.,  who  has  planted  a  remarkable  thorn 
avenue  reaching  from  the  gateway  for  nearly  a  hundred  yards  towards 
the  house,  and  forming  a  kind  of  triumphal  arch,  whose  variegated 
bloom  and  delicious  perfume  are  most  attractive  in  the  later  days  of 
Spring.  In  this  neighbourhood,  the  common  hawthorn,  when  growing 
alone,  attains  quite  stately  proportions,  in  contrast  with  the  stunted 
specimens  found  in  the  higher  and  more  elevated  parts  of  the  dale. 
Many  of  these  trees  in  the  fields  about  Pool,  are  from  twenty  to  thirty 
feet  high,  and  bulky  in  proportion ;  in  Spring  they  usually  put  on  a 
lovely  mass  of  snowy  blossom,  which  later  yield  a  profusion  of  crimson 
fruit.  Beautiful  looks  the  valley  too  when  viewed  from  some  convenient 
standpoint.  From  Pool  Bank  there  is  a  charming  prospect,  and  far 
down  the  richly  wooded  landscape  we  can  just  descry  the  old  Castle  of 
Harewood  with  the  noble  mansion  of  the  Earls  of  Harewood  rising 
proudly  from  an  apparent  jungle  of  foliage. 

Ascending  Pool  Bank  we  reach  the  Leeds  and  Otley  turnpike  at 
the  Dyneley  Arms  hotel,  where  are  pleasant  tea-gardens,  &c.  This  is 
a  favorite  rendezvous  of  cyclists,  and  often  on  the  Saturday  half-holiday, 
if  the  day  be  fine,  it  is  astonishing  to  see  this  magnificent  highway, 
broad  and  level  as  a  table  top,  crowded  with  cyclists  of  both  sexes,  and 
clad  in  a  variety  of  costumes,  gliding  rapidly  to  and  fro,  and  reminding 


one  of  some  Continental  boulevard  on  a  similar  fete  day.  Tin-  road 
towards  Bramhope  is  bordered  with  lofty  and  well-grown  trees,  forming 
a  splendid  avenue,  which  adds  not  a  little  to  the  picturesqueness  of 
thesr  busy  gathtjrings.  This  fine  road,  I  may  add,  was  surveyed  and 
laid  out  about  sixty  years  ago  by  the  late  Mr.  George  Haywood,  of 
Ik-adingley  Hall. 

Midway  between  Otley  and  Bramhope,  but  in  the  township  of 
Pool,  stands  Caley  Hall,  a  very  old  and  interesting  mansion,  and  in  all 
probability  the  only  survivor  of  an  ancient  hamlet  of  that  name.  The 
place  gave  name  to  an  old  family,  and  in  the  reign  of  Edward  III.,  one 
John  de  Caylli  de  Poule  appears  party  to  a  transaction  concerning 
lands  in  Stockeld.*  In  the  fifteenth  century  it  was  a  hunting-lodge  of 
the  Gascoignes,  and  subsequently  the  Daltons,  to  one  of  whom  there  is  a 
monument  in  Otley  Church,  occupied  it.  About  the  end  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  the  Atkinsons,  already  mentioned,  were  living  here,  and 
they  sold  the  estate  to  the  Fawkes  family  sometime  before  1750.  The 
hall  or  lodge  then  consisted  of  the  south  room  and  kitchen  only.  The 
drawing-room  was  added  by  the  Cloughs,  and  the  dining-room,  which 
now  looks  so  old,  was  really  not  built  until  about  fifty  years  ago.  It 
was  designed  by  Miss  Charlotte  Fawkes,  of  Farnley,  and  was  lined 
with  oak  panels  on  which  were  depicted  scenes  of  hunting  and  shooting, 
with  portraits  of  the  people  then  living  in  the  neighbourhood.  The 
pictures,  or  some  of  them,  were  drawn  by  George  Walker,  of  Killing- 
beck,  author  of  Costumes  of  Yorkshire,  and  were  painted  on  the 
panels  by  a  carriage-painter  from  Leeds,  whose  name  I  have  not 
ascertained.  The  whole  of  the  panelling  is  now  at  Farnley. 

Afterwards  the  hall  was  occupied  for  some  years  by  Dr.  John 
Raistrick,  who  had  been  in  the  navy  and  was  a  noted  short-horn 
breeder.  He  made  many  improvements  in  the  house  and  gardens. 
It  was  a  charming  retired  place,  and  when  the  owners,  about 
1820,  made  the  park,  they  had  it  stocked  with  a  numerous  and 
splendid  herd  of  red  and  fallow  deer,  besides  goats  and  some 
not  very  approachable  wild-swine.  Mr.  Fawkes  also  procured 
several  beautiful  zebra  horses,  and  a  handsome  specimen  of 
the  axis,  or  wild  jungle-stag  of  India,  and  these  might  have  been  seen 
roaming  about  the  wide  and  fertile  domain  up  to  about  the  year  1840, 
when  the  road  I  have  mentioned  was  made,  which  cut  the  park  in  two, 
and  the  animals  were  destroyed. 


*  Yorks*    Co.   Mag.    i.    34.     For   Pedigrees  of  Calr\ ,    Co.    York.,   \(v  .S'///Y<r.v  .S'<«-., 
vol.  36,  p.  125,  196-7;   Burke'.s  funded  Gentry;    Yorks.   Arch.  Jl.,  vol.  i.  p.  232,  303,  &c. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 


BRAMHOPE. 

Mean  in  i,r  of  Hramhopc     Situalion   and  wide  view      Roman  camp      I  Ii-torical  records 
Land  cuhivated   I'roin   ancient    tinu^     Tin-    Dome-dav   carucatc      Dyneley  family 
Local    monastic    properties     Tenants    in    bondage      Kramhope    Hall— The    Rhodes 
and  Darwin  families     The  old  chapel  erected  during  the  era  ot  the  Commonwealth 
— The  old  churchyard     The   new  church    of    St.    Ciiles     The   \\Ysleyan    Chapel 
The  Craven    Institute. 


BRAMHOPE    is    an   ancient    and   pleasant   village,   called 
'       perhaps    after   some    chief;   one   Braam    being  lord    of 


Yeadon  and  Esholt  after  the  Conquest ;  though  it  is 
more  probable  to  be  derived  from  the  A.-S.  bram,  broom. 
Mr.  Francis  Darwin  informs  me  that  the  bank  in  front 
of  his  house  in  Bramhope  is  called  Broom  Bank,  and  that  in  his 
grandfather's  time  it  had  much  broom  growing  on  it.*  The  village 
occupies  an  open  acclivity,  commanding  a  wide  view  to  the  north  and 
east ;  on  a  fine  day  the  towers  of  York  Minster  being  distinctly  visible. 
On  the  high  ground  about  a  mile  to  the  south  of  the  village  ran  the 
Roman  road  from  Tadcaster  to  Ilkley,  previously  mentioned,  which  is 
still  in  evidence  as  a  grass-grown  raise  in  a  wood  near  Marsh  Plantation, 
a  little  west  of  this  place  Near  an  old  farmstead  called  Camp  House 
are  the  remains  of  what  seems  likely  to  have  been  a  castra  astira,  or 
summer  station,  which  is  described  by  Thoresby  in  his  Diary  for  the 
year  1702.  "Upon  Bramhope  Moor  in  the  place  now  called  Stadtfolds 
[Latin,  stativa;  A-S.  staede,  modern  German  stadt,  a  station  or  town]  we 
saw  another  large  camp,  but  this  has  a  double  agger,  though  by  its 
squareness  and  the  leading  of  the  via  ricinalis  thereunto,  it  seems  also 
to  have  been  Roman. "f  The  road  from  the  camp  goes  westwards  by 
Green  Gates  and  may  be  traced  near  Carlton  Workhouse  and  again  on 
Guiseley  Moor. 

That  Bramhope  was  a  well  cultivated  and  populous  territory  in 
Anglo-Saxon  times  is  evident  from  the  Domesday  testimony.  It  is 
recorded  there  were  eight  caruca'tes  to  be  taxed  before  1066,  where 
the  land  was  to  four  ploughs.  There  was  also  underwood  half  a  leuga 

*  A  rather  late  glossary  printed  in  Wright's  collection  defines  the  word  "brame" 
by  the  Latin  words  tribulits  and  vvpres.  The  ordinary  word  "bramble"  is  a  diminutive 
of  "brame,"  the  second  "b"  in  "bramble"  being  intrusive.  See  the  words  "bramble" 
and  "broom"  in  the  New  English  Dictionary. 

f  See  also  Simpson's  Adel,  p.  77. 


134 

in  length  and  two  quaranteens  in  breadth  ;  the  whole  manor  being  one 
leuga  in  length  and  one  in  breadth.  The  quaranteen  is  the  "furlong," 
that  is  the  side  of  the  areal  acre,  and  the  square  leuga  of  Domesday  is 
demonstrated  to  contain  1440  statute  acres.  The  township  of  Bramhope 
is  now  stated  on  the  6  inch  map  to  contain  1396  acres.  Here,  then,  is  a 
manor  providing  a  singular  illustration  of  the  intricate  problems  of 
Domesday.  According  to  Cannon  Isaac  Taylor  this  would  I  suppose, 
be  regarded  as  a  three-field  manor,  worked  as  from  pre-Conquest  times, 
by  a  three-year  rotation  of  crops.  In  three-field  manors,  he  tells  us,  the 
Domesday  carucata  ad  geldum  was  normally  sixty  acres,  the  land  tilled  in 
one  year  by  one  plough,  while  terra  ad  unam  carucam  was  120  acres, 
the  land  tilled  in  both  fields  in  one  year  by  one  plough,  and  the  whole 
carucate  including  fallow  (which  was  not  taxed,  and  is  consequently  not 
included  in  Domesday)  was  180  acres,  or  120  acres  for  taxation  and 
60  untaxed  fallow.  In  two-field  manors,  both  the  carucata.  ad  geldum 
and  the  lerra  ad  iinum  carucam  were  80  acres,  and  the  whole 
cnrucate,  including  fallow,  160  acres,  by  the  reckoning  locally  used, 
either  the  Norman  hundred  of  five  score  or  the  English  hundred  of  six 
score.  There  must  consequently  by  this  theory  have  been  1440  acres 
in  cultivation  in  Bramhope  in  1066,  or  960  subject  to  the  geld,  while  the 
rest  of  the  manor  must  have  been  turned  to  profitable  account.  But  the 
geld  carucate,  I  take  it,  bears  no  constant  relation  to  areal  measurement, 
and  what  may  be  found  to  apply  to  some  manors  does  not  apply  to  all. 
Ploughs  though  normally  of  eight  oxen  were  not  always  of  this  strength. 
The  returns  of  Domesday  are  and  were  intended  from  the  outset  to  be  a 
return  of  the  actual  taxable  value  of  the  land,  and  what  was  of  no 
worth  was  not  taxed,  and  consequently  does  not  appear.  This  is 
especially  applicable,  as  I  have  before  pointed  out,  to  ecclesiastical 
property  and  in  the  case  of  Saxon  churches  now  standing,  which  as  they 
were  then  of  no  value  are  not  mentioned  in  the  Domesday  inquest. 
The  Domesday  geld  carucate  was  therefore  meant  to  be  essentially  a 
unit  of  assessment  rather  than  a  certain  measure  of  the  extent  of  a 
manor.* 

Bramhope  before  1066  had  been  worth  forty  shillings,  but  when 
Gilbert  Tyson  had  the  estate  granted  to  him  together  with  ten  others  in 
the  West  Riding,  it  was  "all  waste;"  the  people  had  either  died  or  fled 
or  were  suffering  from  extreme  poverty:  Uchil,  the  pre-Conquest  owner, 

*  The  elaborate  calculations  made  by  Mr.  Pell  in  the  Doomsday  Commemoration 
volumes  (1888)  (pp.  227-326)  must  surely  fall  to  the  ground  so  far  as  this  part  of 
Yorkshire  is  concerned.  The  kernel  of  Fleta's  carucate  it  is  true  was  the  geldable  unit 
of  120  acres  of  sown  land,  but  how  are  we  to  reconcile  a  manor  which  seems  never  to 
have  contained  as  much  as  1400  acres  with  the  assumed  square  leuga  of  1440  acres. 
Granting-  even  that  the  woodland  was  not  taxed,  it  was  still  parcel  of  the  manor, 


must  have  sorrowed  at  seeing  his  fair  acres  •' wasted ''  before  him,  hut  on 
the  Norman  adjustment  he  was  permitted  to  hold  the  manor  as  a  vassal 
of  the  foreign  conqueror.  Though  afterwards  taken  into  the  ancient 
parish  of  Otley,  Bramhope  I  should  state,  formed  no  part  of  the 
Archbishop's  liberty  of  Otley.  Tyson  had  extensive  possessions  in 
Lincolnshire  and  Notts.,  but  in  1095  he  was  deprived  of  his  barony,  and 
his  estates  were  divided  between  Nigel  de  Albini  and  Ivo  de  Vesci.* 
Margaret,  only  daughter  and  heiress  of  Henry,  Lord  Vesci,  married 
John,  Lord  Clifford,  "black-faced  Clifford,"  or  "bloody  Clifford"  of 
Shakespeare's  Henry  VI.,  whose  grandson  Henry,  Earl  of  Cumberland, 
sold  the  manor  of  Bramhope  to  William  Dyneley  of  Bramhope,  in 
1546.  He  died  in  1586  and  was  buried  in  the  chancel  of  Otley  church, 
where  many  of  the  Dyneleys  are  laid.  This  family  was  descended  from 
the  Dyneleys  of  Downham,  co  Lanes  temp,  Edward  II.  and  they  have 
continued  in  possession  of  Bramhope  until  the  present  century,  f  The 
land  is  all  freehold  and  is  now  held  by  various  owners. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  to  the  north  of  the  hall  is  a  tract  of 
flat  ground  called  Lammas  Field,  which,  when  the  lands  were  common 
lands  was  closed  until  Lammas  Day  for  the  purpose  of  hay- 
making. It  was  then  open  to  the  common  stock.  For  this  information 
I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  Darwin,  of  Creskeld.  It  affords  a  very  interesting 
and  late  instance  of  the  survival  of  the  ancient  common-field  system, — 
the  fields  jacetitfs  in  communi  of  a  medieval  manor,  the  existence  of 
which  is  recorded  in  the  preambles  to  many  of  the  Enclosure  Acts  of 
the  time  of  George  III.  By  the  Statute  of  Merton  (1235)  it  was 
enacted  that  every  tenant  on  a  manor  should  have  a  proportionate  right 
with  the  lord  over  the  waste  lying  near  the  fields,  and  only  when  the 
waste  was  larger  than  what  the  tenants  required,  could  the  lord 
encroach  upon  or  enclose  any  part  of  it.  Here  at  Bramhope  these 
ancient  Lammas  Fields  were  thrown  open  in  August  to  all  tenants  and 
villagers  on  the  manor  after  harvest-time,  a  very  wasteful  method 
surely,  since  the  land  after  cropping  could  rarely  be  manured,  or 
sufficiently  manured,  before  next  seed-time.  The  tardy  progress  of 
enclosures  kept  agriculture  in  a  very  backward  state,  and  even  after  the 
restoration  of  the  Stuarts,  when  England  had  greatly  recovered  from 
the  effects  of  the  Civil  War,  half  the  land  in  England  lay  unenclosed 
and  uncultivated. 

The  abbey  of  Kirkstall  and  the  priory  of  Arthington  had  lands  in 
Bramhope,|  and  the  monks  of  Kirkstall  also  had  the  water-mill  here, 

.Sir  Yorks.  Archl.Jl.  xiii.   117  n. 

f  For  pedigree  of  Dyneley  of  Bramhope,  s<-i>  Whitakrr's  Loidis and Elmete,  p.  198, 
and  Foster's  Visitation  of  Yorks.  (1875). 
*  Hurt  oil's  ,1  fini.  Ebor.  p.  88  and  291, 


i36 

which  they  let  to  the  hospital  of  St.  Leonard's,  York,  at  an  annual 
rent  says  Burton,  of  45.,  but  405.  is  the  amount  entered  in  the  Kirkstall 
Abbey  rent  roll  of  1459.*  As  appears  by  one  of  the  thirteenth  century 
grants  to  this  monastery,  there  were  then  tenants  in  bondage  at 
Bramhope,  over  whose  bodies,  born  and  unborn,  as  also  of  his  cattle, 
the  lord  had  power  of  disposal  by  gift  or  sale.  To  the  monks  of 
Kirkstall  we  find  this  gift  by  Roger,  son  of  Hugh  de  Leathley  and 
Christian,  his  mother,  viz.:  of  eleven  oxgangs,  with  tofts,  crofts,  and 
all  the  men  in  the  village,  with  their  families  and  cattle ;  a  grant  which 
Hugh's  grandson,  Adam  de  Leathley,  fully  confirmed.  In  1226  Emma, 
widow  of  Henry  de  Morton,  gave  the  Abbey  half  a  carucate  of  land  in 
Haldefelde,  in  exchange  for  a  like  area  in  Bramhope.  This  no  doubt 
has  reference  to  the  Kirkstall  Abbey  estate  at  Morton,  in  Bingley 
parish,  where  the  monks  had  a  grange,  probably  the  old  farm  known 
as  Elam  Grange.  In  1285  the  Abbot  of  Kirkstall  for  himself  and 
successors,  obtained  a  charter  of  free  warren  in  their  demesne  lands  at 
Bramhope,  Collingham,  Bardsey,  &c. 

Bramhope  Hall,  the  old  manor  house  (of  which  I  give  a  view  from 
a  photograph  by  my  relative,  Mr.  John  J.  Stead)  was  long  the  home 
of  the  Dyneleys,  and  at  the  entrance  to  the  kitchen  is  a  shield  bearing 
the  fess  and  mullets  of  the  family.  About  1808  a  Leeds  merchant  named 
Christopher  Smith  purchased  the  estate.  He  died  in  1846  and  his  only 
child,  Ann,  became  the  wife  of  William  Rhodes,  into  whose  hands  the 
property  then  passed,  and  whose  family  are  still  the  owners.  He  was 
formerly  Captain  of  the  igth  Lt.  Dragoons,  and  died  in  1869,  aged  77. 
He  left  a  family  of  four  sons  and  two  daughters,  one  of  his  sons 
being  Lt.-Col.  Wm.  Rhodes,  68th  Lt.  Infantry,  who  was  for  some  time 
Minister  of  Agriculture  for  the  province  of  Quebec,  Canada,  a  member 
of  the  Provincial  Parliament  and  a  Justice  of  the  Peace.  He  was  born 
at  Bramhope  Hall  in  1821  and  died  at  Benmore,  Quebec,  in  1892, 
aged  71,  and  was  buried  there.  The  hall  has  been  tenanted  now  some 
years  by  James  Burnley,  Esq.,  J.P.,  of  Bradford. 

Near  the  hall  stands  the  old  chapel  (not  used  since  1881)  which  is 
interesting  as  being  one  of  the  very  few  edifices  in  this  country  erected 
for  public  worship  during  the  unsettled  period  of  the  great  Civil  War. 
(See  also  BURLEY).  It  was  founded  by  Robert  Dyneley,  Esq.,  an  ardent 
and  unswerving  Puritan,  together  with  the  freeholders,  in  1649,  or 
almost  immediately  after  England  was  declared  a  Commonwealth.  An 
estate  of  about  130  acres,  taken  from  the  wastes  and  commons  at 
Bramhope,  was  vested  in  trustees,  and  the  proceeds  were  to  be  applied 
"towards  the  maintenance  of  an  able  and  godly  minister,"  as  well  as  for 

*  Thoresby  Soc.  ii.  4;  also  viii.  15. 


137 

the  erection  of  a  minister's  residence.  The  chapel  is  said  never  to  have 
been  consecrated,  and  at  the  Restoration  in  1660  it  fell  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Church  of  England.*  Oliver  Heywood,  the  eminent 
Puritan  divine,  was  a  frequent  visitor  at  Bramhope  Hall,  as  related  in 

his  Diaries. 

The  chapel  possesses  no  architectural  merit,  being  a  plain  stone 
building  in  the  poorest  style  of  post-Reformation  Gothic,  with  rough- 
cast walls,  and  a  bell-turret  at  the  west  end.  The  interior  has  been 


THE   OLD   CHAPEL,    BRAMHOPE 

neatly  restored,  and  partly  re-pewed,  though  some  of  the  old  square 
pews  remain.  There  is  also  a  quaint  pulpit,  with  sounding-board,  and  a 
font  dated  1673.  There  are  some  neat  memorial  tablets  on  the  walls  to 
the  families  of  Dyneley,  Smith,  Rhodes,  Silvester,  Driver,  and  Leyland. 
The  registers  are  at  Otley.  In  the  churchyard  at  the  east  end  are  a 
couple  of  fine  old  beech-trees,  whose  ample  and  spreading  branches 
cast  a  sombre  shadow  over  the  old  building.  Here  are  two  beautiful 
tomb-stones  (shewn  in  the  engraving)  placed  over  the  graves  of  the 
above  William  Rhodes,  who  died  July  i5th,  1869,  and  Charlotte  Maria 

*  See  Taylor's  Churches  of  Yorkshite  (1875)  pp.  210-14;  a'so  'he  Bradford  Antiquary 
(1X98),  pp.  325-34,  and  Miall's  Congregationalism  in  Yorkshire,  p.  24.^. 


Cooper  Darwin,  first  wife  of  Francis  Darwin,  Esq.,  of  Creskeld  Hall. 
She  died  June  22nd,  1885. 

The  new  church  at  Bramhope  (St.  Giles),  dedicated  after  the  old 
chapel  which  stood  behind  the  hall  in  a  field  now  called  Chapel  Garth, 
was  erected  in  1881,  and  stands  picturesquely  at  the  junction  of  the  Leeds 
and  Cookridge  roads.  It  is  a  handsome  and  substantial  building  and  is 
particularly  noteworthy  for  its  superior  stained  glass.  The  colored 
east  window  is  a  very  chaste  and  rich  example  of  the  art,  and  there  are 
several  other  beautiful  stained  windows  dedicated  as  me'morials  to 
members  of  the  family  of  Mr.  Francis  Darwin,  of  Creskeld  Hall,  and 
also  to  the  families  of  Rawson,  Craven,  North,  and  Wm.  Myers  (Mr. 
Darwin's  steward).  The  handsome  reredos  in  the  church  is  a  memorial 
erected  by  her  sisters  to  Frances  Elizabeth  Ellershaw,  who  died  in 
Central  Africa,  July  gth,  1897. 

Bramhope  also  possesses  a  handsome  new  Wesleyan  Church, 
which  occupies  a  prominent  site,  and  is  a  conspicuous  landmark  for 
many  miles  round.  It  is  in  the  decorated  Gothic  style,  with  nave, 
transepts,  chancel,  and  organ  recess.  The  east  window  is  filled  with 
beautiful  stained  glass,  and  is  a  memorial  to  the  late  Mr.  Henry  Fawcett, 
The  buildings,  including  Sunday  School  and  caretaker's  house,  have 
incurred  an  expenditure  of  about  ^3000.  The  opening  ceremony  was 
performed  in  September  1896,  by  Mrs.  S.  T  Fawcett,  of  Leeds,  and 
the  Rev.  Marshall  Randies,  President  of  the  Conference,  afterwards 
preached  an  appropriate  sermon. 

The  "Craven  Institute"  at  Bramhope  was  founded  by  will  (dated 
nth  June,  1888,  and  proved  at  Wakefield  3ist  May,  1889)  of  an  old 
resident  at  Bramhope,  the  late  Mr.  Robert  Craven,  who  left  a 
considerable  sum  of  money  in  the  hands  of  trustee^.  These  were  the 
vicar  of  Bramhope,  the  Rev  T.  R.  Bruce,  Mr.  Thos.  Whiiham,  of 
Bramhope,  and  Mr.  John  Yeadon,  of  Otley,  who  were  empowered  to 
dispose  of  it  at  their  discretion  to  charitable  objects.  A  memorial 
institute  was  decided  upon,  and  this  was  erected  at  a  cost  of  about 
^2000,  exclusive  of  the  site,  and  was  opened  in  May,  1897. 

The  old  school  at  Bramhope  seems  to  have  been  founded  by  a 
township  enclosure  in  1809,  and  according  to  the  Schools  Inquiry 
Commission  in  1869  the  property  was  then  vested  with  two  trustees, 
namely,  Francis  Darwin,  Esq.,  of  Creskeld  Hall,  and  R.  D.  Dyneley, 
Esq.,  of  Bramhope.  Mr.  Darwin,  however,  informs  me  that  he  never 
was  a  trustee  for  this  school.  The  report  says  that  the  Dyneley  family 
property  in  Bramhope  was  at  some  time  last  century  divided  into  two 
parts,  and  that  the  elder  of  two  brothers  retained  Bramhope  Hall,  which 
was  sold  about  1808  (not  1820)  to  Christopher  Smith,  as  before  related. 
In  1866  the  estate,  with  the  manor,  was  bought  by  Miss  Dawson. 


RIGHT    HON.    W.    E     FORSTER. 


CHAPTER    IX. 


BURI.EY. 

I'ht-  old  cotton  mill  and  how  it  was  worked— The  new  mills — Burley  in  the  van  of 
progress— Historical  records— Meaning- of  Burley — Local  families — Descent  of  the 
manor — Monastic  possessions — The  church— The  late  Rev.  Dr.  Black — The  Maude 
family— Notable  houses — Recent  alterations— Burley  Great  Pudding- — Burley  Hall 
— Local  Worthies— Handsome  memorial  to  the  late  Rt.  Hon.  W.  E.  Forster — 
Greenholme  Mills,  a  model  factory — Mr.  Wm.  Fison  and  the  late  Mr.  Forster — 
Local  benefactions — Anecdote  of  Mr.  Forster--His  death  and  funeral— The  poet 
Watson, 

URLEY,  observes  Dr.  Whitaker,  "is  a  delightful  village, 
tfiough  contaminated  physically  and  morally  by  a  cotton 
mill."  Little  else  does  he  say,  inasmuch  as  the  learned 
author's  notice  of  this  interesting  old  place  is  contained 
in  less  than  four  lines.  Cotton  mills  or  trad  in  <* 

o 

concerns  of  any  kind  were  especially  repugnant  to  the  refined  feelings 
of  Craven's  century-old  historian,  but  we  in  these  later  days  have 
grown  accustomed  to  such  like  factors  of  economic  development , 
factors  that  have  played  a  very  important  part  in  the  civilising 
processes  of  the  past  hundred  years.  We  have  come  to  regard  the 
erection  of  a  mill  in  its  proper  place,  not  indeed  as  a  retrograde 
movement,  but  as  the  sign  rather  of  social  progress  and  for  the 
common  good.  The  mill  in  question  has  a  more  than  local  and 
ordinary  interest,  being  the  primum  stamen  of  the  celebrated  Green- 
holme  Mills  associated  with  such  pattern  owners  as  William  Fison,  J.P., 
the  late  respected  "Father  of  the  Village"  and  the  Rt.  Hon.  William 
Edward  Forster,  the  educationist,  of  whom  more  anon.  The  old 
cotton  mill  performed  a  truly  charitable  work,  being  almost  entirely 
run,  overlookers  excepted,  by  children  who  were  sent  down  from  the 
workhouses  in  London,  and  who  were  apprenticed  to  the  trade. 
When  they  had  served  their  time  many  of  them  settled  in  the  place, 
and  their  families  afterwards  became  their  own  householders  and 
were  otherwise  comfortably  off.  The  old  mill  has  since  been  entirely 
rebuilt,  and  now  presents  in  its  greatly  enlarged  aspects  a  model  of 
symmetry  and  cleanness,  while  the  firm  has  always  been  careful  to 
avoid  any  interference  with  the  natural  beauties  of  the  place  or  to 
suffer  any  pollution  of  the  famous  fishing  river  by  its  side.  For  some 
years  now  every  particle  of  the  mill-sewage  has  been  conveyed  to 
the  district  sewage  works  between  Burley  and  Menston. 

Apart  from  recent  residental  development  there  are  many  older 
houses  and  cottages  in  the  town  that  present  a  well-to-do  comfortable 
appearance,  thoroughly  characteristic  of  the  place.  The  village 


140 

has  indeed  taken  the  lead  in  many  enlightened  movements,  largely 
through  the  encouragement  of  the  cultured  and  liberal-minded 
owners  of  the  mills.  Burley  claims  the  distinction  of  being  the  first 
place  in  the  Wharfe  valley  where  a  flower-show  was  held.  It  had 
also  the  first  Lecture  Hall,  and  was  also  the  first  place  in  this  part  of 
the  country  where  athletic  sports  were  held.  It  had  likewise  the 
first  Volunteer  Corps  in  the  district,  and  the  late  Rt.  Hon.  W.  E. 
Forster  was  at  one  time  captain  of  it. 

Influenced  in  the  past  by  such  able  and  enterprising  chiefs  as 
the  Whitakers,  Greenwoods,  Fisons,  Forsters,  and  Claphams,  no 
wonder  that  Burley  acquired  a  fame  and  reputation  far  outside  the 
pale  of  the  West  Riding.  As  the  home  too,  of  Thomas  Maude,  the 
poet  and  early  topographer  of  VVharfedale,  and  of  William  Watson, 
the  present-day  poet,  whose  work  has  won  for  him  a  high  national 
recognition,  Burley  has  a  more  than  ordinarily  distinguished  literary 
fame. 

But  to  go  back  to  remote  centuries  we  find  that  Burley  is 
mentioned  in  the  great  national  survey  of  William  the  Norman  in 
A.D.  1086.  It  is  there  written  Burghelai and  in  the  "Recapitulation," 
BurgeM,  which  as  elsewhere  explained,  is  named  from  some  Anglo- 
Saxon  or  earlier  fortified  enclosure,  the  site  of  which  cannot  now  be 
identified.  It  may  possibly  have  been  a  Roman  out-post  situated 
near  the  road  from  Adel  to  Ilkley,  and  not  unlikely  at  Stead,  hereafter 
mentioned.  Bury  and  borough  have  the  same  import,  indicative  of  a 
fortified  hill  or  raised  fort,  yet  in  the  north  of  England  there  appears 
to  be  a  distinction  between  the  two.  Bury  in  place  names  appears 
distinctively  Saxon  and  borough  Roman,  as  Aldborough,  Richborough, 
Overborough,  Addleborough,  Littleborough,  and  apparently  Knares- 
borough ;  while  the  Saxon  form  of  bury  appears  in  Dewsbury, 
Horbury,  Almondbury,  &c.*  These  burghs  also  appear  to  have  been 
often  if  not  always  associated  with  important  ownerships  and  to  have 
been  the  ancient  seats  and  strongholds  of  royal  or  distinguished 
persons. 

At  the  Norman  Conquest,  Burley  was  taken  into  the  Archbishop's 
manor  of  Otley,  and  in  1279,  by  inquisition  held  at  York,  the  manor 
of  Burley  was  stated  to  be  held  by  Sir  Ralph  Maunsel  and  his  heirs, 
of  the  Archbishop  of  York  for  the  time  being,  by  doing  the  service  of 
half  a  Knight's  Fee,  and  suit  of  the  Archbishop's  Court  at  Otley  ftom 
three  weeks  to  three  weeks.  The  manor  was  stated  to  be  then  worth 
in  all  issues  £26.  This  was  an  era  of  great  prosperity.  Next,  we 
find  that  in  1312  Hugh,  son  and  heir  of  Richard  de  Babington,  held 
the  manor  of  Burghley  by  knight  service  of  the  Archbishop  of 
York,  which  answered  for  the  fourth  part  of  a  Knight's  Fee.  In  1326 
Joh.  de  Calverley  did  his  homage  to  the  Archbishop  for  the  manor 

*'  See  Whitaker's  Loidis  and  El-mete,  p.  374. 


lands  and  tenements  which  he  held  of  him  in  Burley  and  Menston 
in  Wharfedale  for  half  a  Knight's  Fee,  relief,  ward,  scutage,  (a 
pecuniary  payment  in  lieu  of  military  service),  and  suit  of  Court  at 

Otley. 

Afterwards  the  manor  of  Burley  came  to  the  Middletons  and 
from  them  was  purchased  by  John  Pulleyn,  who  died  in  1644.  The 
Pulleyns  long  resided  at  the  old  Hall.  They  had  already  resided  in 
this  part  of  Yorkshire  for  several  centuries,  and  their  name  occurs  in 
Fewston  parish  as  early  as  the  Poll  Tax  of  1379.  There  are  at  least 
three  distinct  branches  of  the  family,  doubtless  all  of  one  stock, 
namely  of  Fewston,  Killinghall,  or  Ripley,  and  Scotton,  and  from  the 
last  mentioned  descends  the  Pulleyns  of  Burley.  The  celebrated  Dr. 
Samuel  Pulleyn,  first  Master  of  the  Leeds  Grammar  School,  and 
afterwards  Archbishop  of  Tuam,  was  the  son  of  the  Rev.  William 
Pulleyn,  rector  of  Ripley  (1583-1632)  by  his  wife  Joan,  daughter  of 
(ieorge  Sheffield,  of  Bothams  in  the  parish  of  Fewston.  Archbishop 
Pulleyn  married  a  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Alex.  Cooke,  vicar  of  Leeds, 
whose  sister  was  the  wife  of  Archbishop  Bramhall,  of  Armagh,  who, 
by  the  way,  was  born  at  Pontefract  in  1593.  A  cousin  of  Archbishop 
Bramhall,  I  may  add,  was  the  Rev.  George  Walker,  a  native  of 
Bingley.  Co.  York,  and  senior  rector  of  Donoughmore,  Co.  Tyrone, 
who  was  father  of  the  celebrated  hero-priest,  the  Rev.  George 
Walker,  D.D.,  govenor  of  Derry  in  the  famous  siege  of  1689,  "against 
the  enemies  of  William  and  the  Faith,"  whose  great  monument,  a 
fluted  column  eighty-one  feet  high,  surmounted  by  a  statue  of  Walker, 
stands  in  the  centre  of  the  Royal  Bastion  in  the  city  of  Derry.* 

The  above  John  Pulleyn,  of  Burley,  was  son  of  John  Pulleyn  of 
Scotton,  by  Mary  his  wife,  daughter  of  Henry  Tempest.  Thomas 
Pulleyn,  grandson  of  John,  who  died  in  1644,  married  Anne,  only 
daughter  and  heiress  of  John  Fairfax  of  Menston,  and  their  son 
Thomas,  who  died  in  1759,  aged  58,  was  for  many  years  Clerk  of 
the  Peace  for  the  West  Riding.f  By  his  first  wife,  Frances  Hammond, 
he  left  a  daughter,  Frances,  who  married  the  Rev.  Thomas  Mosley, 
M.A.,  rector  of  Stonegrave,  in  Ryedale,  whose  son  Thos.  Pulleyn 
Mosley,  Esq.,  succeeded  to  the  Burley  estates.  He  led  a  very 
extravagant  life  and  died  at  Hartlepool  in  1813,  leaving  three 
daughters,  all  of  whom  married.:}:  He  was  interred  in  Otley  church 

*  See  the  author's  Nidderdale,  p.  216. 
Surtees  Soc.,  vol.  65. 

|  The  late  $jir  Thos.  Phillips,  Bart.,  <>t  Middle  Hill,  Worcestershire,  purchased 
troni  the  family  part  of  his  unrivalled  collection  of  Fairfax  MSS.  which  were  sold  at 
Sotheby's  in  June,  1898.  The  collection  included  twelve  original  letters  of  Cromwell, 
numerous  letters  of  General  Lambert,  Sir  Thos.  Fairfax,  Col.  Fairfax,  John  Morris 
(Governor  of  Pontefract),  Francis  Hacker  (the  regicide),  Col.  Mauleverer,  the  famous 
Col.  Paulden,  etc.,  and  also  the  original  draft  of  the  conditions  of  the  surrender  of 
Pontefract  in  1649.  .S',v  note  to  vicars  of  Otley. 


142 

in  a  leaden  coffin,  which  is  reported  to  have  been  afterwards 
surreptitiously  taken  away  and  the  body  was  shockingly  mutilated. 
The  marauders  were  however,  traced  and  sent  to  York  Castle. 

The  manor  of  Burley  was  sold  to  Mathew  Wilson,  Esq.,  J.P., 
of  the  Manor  House,  Otley,  who  died  in  1826.  He  sold  it  to  his 
kinsman  the  Rev.  Thomas  Fourness  Wilson,  of  Burley  Hall,  who 
died  Oct.  lyth,  1837,  and  was  uncle  to  the  late  Sir  Mathew  Wilson, 
Bart.,  M.P.,  of  Eshton  Hall,  Gargrave.  Mr.  Wilson  was  for  some 
years  incumbent  of  Silsden,  and  during  his  ministry  the  church  at 
Silsden  was  rebuilt  and  the  tower  added  in  1816.  He  resided  at 
Burley  Hall  at  this  time  and  used  to  go  on  horseback  to  Silsden 
every  Sunday  morning,  a  distance  of  ten  miles,  returning  in  the 
evening.  During  the  latter  period  of  his  life  he  resided  at  York. 


BURLEY   HALL  TWO  CENTURIES  AGO. 


A  lease  of  Burley  Hall,  which  I  have  seen,  is  witnessed  by  two 
servants  living  in  Monkgate  in  that  city.  In  1841  the  manor  was 
next  purchased  by  Thomas  Horsfall,  Esq.,  who  died  in  1861,  and  it 
is  now  owned  by  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Crofton,  who  resides  at  the  hall. 
Formerly  there  were  a  great  many  small  owners  in  the  neighbourhood, 
who  lived  in  their  own  tenements,  with  a  bit  of  land  attached.  These 
have  now  almost  wholly  disappeared,  the  plots  having  become 
absorbed  in  the  larger  ownerships. 

The   monks   of  Kirkstall   and  the  nuns  of   Esholt  had  certain 
lands  and  messuages  in  Burley*,  and  to  Bolton  Priory  belonged  at 

*  Burton's  Man.  Ebor.  pp.    139  and  192,  and   Thoresby  Sor.   Pub.  vol.  i.  pp.  4,  5,  8, 
19,  etc. 


143 

an  early  period  the  whole  estate  of  Scaleberch  or  Scaleberg,  as  it  is 
differently  spelled,  doubtless  from  the  original  huts  or  dwellings  about 
the  burgh  above  alluded  to.*  There  is  a  Scaleber  not  far  from  the 
Roman  camp  above  Settle. 

The  church  at  Burley  was  anciently  a  chapel-of-ease  to  Otley, 
hut  of  the  precise  date  <>f  its  foundation  there  are  no  records.  With 
strict  regard  to  ancient  manorial  custom,  the  original  church,  hall, 
and  mill,  lay  close  beside  each  other  on  the  south  bank  of  the  river. 
Before  the  Reformation  our  forefathers  used  their  churches  seven 
days  in  the  week,  and  as  candles  and  torches  were  then  used  for 
illumination,  these  required  continually  replenishing,  and  bequests 
by  will  were  frequently  made  for  this  purpose.  In  1526  one  Robert 
Wray,  of  Burley,  left  by  will  one  torch  to  the  chapel  here,  and  it 
would  also  appear  at  this  time  that  it  had  a  bell-turret  but  that  the 
old  bell  was  out  of  tune  or  sorely  wanted  repairing,  and  accordingly 
he  bequeaths  2od.  for  "amending  the  bell."  The  predecessor  of  the 
present  edifice  was  a  plain  structure  of  stone,  with  bell-turret  at  the 
west  end,  and  similar  in  appearance  to  the  existing  old  chapel  at 
Bramhope,  erected  a  few  years  later  as  appears  by  deeds  kept  in  the 
vestry.  The  chapel,  which  had  not  the  right  of  sepulture,  was 
re-erected  by  virtue  of  a  grant  to  Lord  Fairfax  from  John  Browne,  of 
Burley,  in  1632,  and  in  the  Parliamentary  Survey  (vol.  18,  p.  334) 
the  value  of  the  cure  is  stated  to  be  ^22  per  annum.  In  1793  it 
was  further  endowed  with  ,£200  by  lot,  and  again  in  1813  with 
^1,200  by  lot  from  the  Parliamentary  Grant.  Also  in  1828  with 
£200,  granted  to  meet  a  benefaction  from  Miss  Currer  of  lands 
worth  ^400. -J-  The  minister's  house  in  1818  was  returned  as  not 
fit  for  residence.  Like  the  old  parsonage  at  Leathley  it  had  three 
rooms  on  the  ground-floor,  a  parlour,  kitchen,  and  another  room 
unflagged,  but  there  were  two  upper  chambers  whose  roofs  were  open 
to  the  slates. 

The  tithe  of  Burley  was  returned  in  1838  as  worth  about  £120. 
I  have  seen  a  number  of  deeds  £c.,  relating  to  the  chapel,  kept  in 
the  vestry  of  Otley  Church,  and  amongst  them  is  Valuation  of 
Seats  in  the  chapel,  and  an  indenture  dated  i5th  September,  1645, 
whereby  Wm.  Vavasour  bequeaths  Bowker's  farm  of  the  value  of  £4 
per  annum  (never  to  be  raised)  to  Wm.  Maud  and  Stephen  Hartley 
and  their  heirs,  as  likewise  to  the  churchwardens  and  overseers 
within  Burley  for  the  time  being  for  the  maintenance  of  a  minister 
within  that  chapel,  the  inhabitants  to  add  £16  thereto.  There  is 
also  an  order  of  Wm.  Settle,  dated  1835,  he  being  the  only  trustee 
under  the  deed  of  appointment  of  an  incumbent  to  the  said  chapel. 

*  For  an  explanation  of  the  term  scale,  skal,  schal,  and  sliawl,  see  the  author's 
Richtnondshire,  p.  363. 

I  So-  Archbishop  Sharp's  .I/.T.S'.,  v<>     i.  p.  111. 


1 44 

The  original  endowment  consisted  of  the  garth  or  ground  on  which 
the  chapel  stood,  conveyed  for  the  better  improvement  of  the  minister's 
salary  and  maintenance.  On  the  garth,  adjoining  the  chapel,  and 
occupying  about  half  of  the  whole  area,  was  erected  a  glebe-house,  a 
cottage  and  a  barn.  When  che  old  chapel  was  taken  down  to  make 
room  for  the  new  church,  these  buildings  were  valued  at  ,£64,  which 
amount  was  added  to  the  fund  for  building  the  parsonage.  The 
whole  ground,  with  a  small  addition,  was  then  consecrated  to  be  the 
churchyard.  The  fees  were  assigned  to  Otley,  reserving  half-fees  to 
the  chaplain  of  Burley  for  services  performed,  and  no  acknowledg- 
ment or  remuneration  it  seems  has  ever  been  made  to  the  living  in 
consideration  of  the  land  thus  permanently  alienated  from  it. 

The  chapel  was  taken  down  in  1841,  and  the  foundation-stone 
of  the  existing  large  and  handsome  edifice  was  laid  on  October  igth 
of  that  year  by  Jonas  Whitaker  Esq.,  of  Greenholme,  to  whom  and 
his  wife  there  is  a  beautiful  memorial  window  in  Otley  Church. 
Among  the  donations  received  towards  the  erection  was  one  of  £20 
from  Her  Majesty  the  Queen  Dowager,  and  ^25  from  His  Grace  the 
Archbishop  of  York.  The  new  building  was  consecrated,  June  iQth, 
1843,  by  Dr.  Longley,  Bishop  of  the  Diocese  and  afterwards 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  In  1869  a  faculty  was  obtained  for  the 
enlargement  of  the  chancel,  the  enfranchisement  of  all  seats,  and  the 
embellishment  of  the  church.  The  walls  and  roof  of  the  interior  are 
beautifully  decorated  in  a  rich  warm  tone,  and  on  the  walls  appear 
life-size  figures  of  the  apostles  and  evangelists.  The  windows,  like 
the  rest  of  the  fabric,  are  Early  Pointed  in  style,  being  glared  with 
ground  glass,  and  some  of  them  are  stained.  They  are  memorials  to 
Wm.  Vavasour,  of  Stead  (pb.  1642),  to  Wm.  Maude,  of  Burley,  (pb. 
1661)  and  Wm.  Jenkinson,  bom  at  Burley,  who  was  an  alderman  of 
Boston  (pb.  1642)  ;  these  were  benefactors  to  the  old  chapel.  Also  to 
the  later  families  of  Gill  and  Emsley,  and  one,  beautifully  conceived, 
to  a  son  of  E.  P.  Arnold-Forster  Esq.,  who  died  January  2ist,  1887, 
aged  9  years.  There  are  also  neat  brasses  placed  to  the  memory 
of  Thomas  Wade,  lay-clerk  of  Burley  from  1834  to  1871,  and 
Thomas  Clark,  who  died  in  1898,  and  who  for  forty-one  years  was 
master  of  the  Greenholme  Mills  School.  Mr.  Wade,  whose  portrait 
hangs  in  the  vestry,  was  a  benefactor  to  several  local  charities,  and 
was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Parish  Church  Sunday  School.  The 
east  window  is  also  a  beautiful  composition  of  three  lights,  representing 
scenes  in  the  life  of  Our  Saviour.  It  is  a  memorial  to  Thomas 
Horsfall  Esq.,  lord  of  the  manor  of  Burley,  who  died  in  1861,  and 
who  was  a  most  liberal  supporter  of  the  church  and  contributed  ^400 
towards  the  erection  of  the  parsonage.  There  is  also  a  handsome 
window  dedicated  to  the  memory  of  the  Rev.  Chas.  Ingham  Black,  D.D., 
the  respected  pastor  of  the  church  for  41  years,  who  died  in  1896, 
aged  74.  The  Rev.  R.  P.  Stedman,  the  present  vicar,,  succeeded  him. 


Dr.  Black's  memory  will  Ion-  be  treasured  in  the  parish  in 
which  he  M>  long  and  assiduously  laboured.  He  was  born  September 
»ISt,  iS^i,  at  Klsinore,  CO.  Sligo,  ami  was  tin-  second  son  of  Mr. 
John  Black,  of  Sligo,  who  was  an  intimate  friend  of  Lord  Palmerston. 
In  1856  the  rhapelrv  of  Hurley  was,  largely  through  his  efforts, 
erected  into  a  separate  parish  with  Menston.  and  he  became  its  first 
incumbent.  The  new  church  of  St.  John,  at  Menston.  was  built  and 


THE    REV.    DR.    BLACK. 


opened  in  1858.  Many  improvements  were  effected  from  time  to 
time  in  the  church  and  the  parish,  and  the  value  of  the  living  was 
greatly  augmented.  With  the  exception  of  two  years  (1867-8),  when 
he  did  temporary  duty  as  English  chaplain  at  Darmstadt,  where,  it 
may  be  added,  he  was  brought  into  very  kindly  and  intimate  relations 
with  the  late  Princess  Alice,  he  was  rarely  absent  from  Burley,  even 
for  a  single  Sunday.  His  sermons  were  always  delivered  extempore ; 
and,  says  one  who  knew  him  well,  "  his  choice  of  language  was 


i46 

remarkable,  and  it  was  noticeable  that  he  would  pause  for  any  length 
of  time  rather  than  use  any  but  the  most  exactly  appropriate  word. 
Those  who  heard  his  In  Metnoriam  address,  delivered  from  the 
chancel-steps  on  the  Sunday  morning  following  the  death  of  his  old 
friend  and  parishioner,  the  Rt.  Hon.  W.  E.  Foster,  can  never  forget 
its  rare  discrimination  and  felicity,  nor  yet  the  tenderness  of  manner 
with  which  it  was  spoken."  Dr.  Black  was  appointed  Rural  Dean  of 
Otley  in  1891.  He  was  a  student  all  his  life,  an  excellent  theologian 
and  classical  scholar,  and  a  writer  of  prose  and  verse.  His  Christmas 
carols  evince  a  devotional  feeling  and  melody  far  above  the  average, 
while  his  rendering  into  Latin  verse  of  the  well-known  Rock  of  Ages 
stands  before  Mr.  Gladstone's  in  Hymns  Ancient  and  Modern.  He 
was  author  of  several  volumes,  amongst  which  may  be  mentioned 
Messias  and  Anti- Messias  and  The  Proslytes  of  Ishmael.  In  1888  he 
published  a  short  historical  Memorial  of  the  Chapelry  of  Burley,  which 
shews  how  active  and  versatile  was  his  pen.  To  the  last-mentioned 
little  work  I  am  indebted  for  some  of  the  facts  communicated  in  this 
chapter. 

Resuming  my  account  of  the  church,  the  vestry  is  panelled  with 
black  oak  from  the  Fairfax  pew  in  the  old  chapel,  and  bears  the 
initials  and  date,  G.  F.,  1654.*  In  the  vestry  are  many  things  of 
interest,  including  the  old  oak  deed-chests  of  the  chapelry;  a 
painting  of  the  old  chapel  by  Miss  Black,  daughter  of  the  late 
pastor ;  a  handsome  oak  chair,  designed  and  carved  by  Miss  Black  ; 
a  plan  of  the  church  and  churchyard  (the  latter  consecrated  in 
1843),  a  collection  of  books  and  portraits;  and  a  Milner's  fire-proof 
safe,  the  gift  of  the  Rt.  Hon.  W.  E.  Forster  in  1862.  The  clock  was 
put  up  at  a  cost  of  ^120,  and  set  going  by  Mrs.  Thos.  Horsfall  on 
December  22nd,  1855.! 

In  the  entrance  to  the  church  is  a  large  oval  tablet  erected  by 
Thomas  Maude,  the  poet,  in  1781,  to  the  memory  of  his  ancestors,  of 
whom  is  mentioned  William  Maude,  gent.,  born  A.D.  1588  "in  his 
paternal  mansion  at  Burley,  where  he  died  in  1661.  His  pedigree, 
which  I  owe  to  the  courtesy  of  a  member  of  the  family,  is  subjoined. 
Burley  House  (now  occupied  by  Thomas  M.  Horsfall,  Esq.),  long 
the  home  of  that  worthy  lady  Mrs.  L.  Anderton,  and  Burley  Lodge 
(Misses  Outhwaite)  were  built  by  Thomas  Maude,  the  poet,  who  died 
in  1798,  aged  80.  He  was  the  author  of  Verbeia,  or  IVharfedale,  a 
work  of  superior  merit,  as  well  as  of  an  equally  admirable 
composition  in  verse,  with  valuable  notes,  entitled  IVensleydale,  or 
Rural  Contemplations ;  the  latter  was  published  for  the  benefit  of  the 

*  Mrs.  Francis  Fairfax,  of  Burley,  was  buried  icth  June,  1696,  and  Sir  Walter 
Calveley  records  that  he  went  to  the  funeral  and  had  a  pair  of  gloves  presented  to  him. 
Surtees  Soc.  Pub.,  vol.  77,  p.  69. 

f  Mr.  Fison,  of  Greenholme,  has  a  clever  model  of  the  church  executed  by  a  self- 
taught  local  artist  named  Albert  Walker. 


[H.  Speight's  I'fiprr 

to  tare  page   i 


Richard    Mawde       Johanna,  dan.  and  co-heir 
Hurley  Manor     ;       of  Walter  Graver,  of 

Rolls,  15^6-1543     ;  Mensington, 

I.aiul  in  Bui  lev  m.  before  1=511. 

and    Mensington    :        Dods.  MSS.  3  io.  145. 
Burlev  Manor  Rolls, 
1544-1547 


Bryan   Mawde,  of  Steyde,  in   Hurley, 
Manor  Rolls,    1541-1555 

William  Mawde  (junior), 

Burlev  Manor  Rolls, 

'545- '555 


Edmund 
bap.  Otl< 

28  June,  i 
bur.  Otl< 

23  April,  i 


William  M. 

b.  15  May, 

1640 


Maude,  dau.  of  Francis  Pulle 
m.  Otley,  6  Aug.,   i 


Edmund  M.,   b.   i68i=Priscilla,  d.  of  M  Gleadhill 
d.  3  April,    1744       j     m.  Otley,  30  Sept.,  1708 


John      Edmund     Thomas  Maude,   b.  8  May,-  Cordelia,  d.  ot  M.Webley     William     M.,    of=Mary,    d.    of 


1718,  burd.  Wenslev  3  Sept. 

1798.    Author  of  I  Y/vV/tf  and 

other  poems.      Rebuilt 

Hurley  House 


b.    1730,   m.   St.   Bennetts, 

London,  5  Aug.,  1746, 

d.  9  Nov.,   1802 


Downing  Street, 

Westminster, 
b.  1733 


M.Webley, 

at 
Harewood 


Thomas  AI.,  b.  in  Downing- Street,  1761=  Margaret  Eleanor,  d.  of  Wm.  Jemmett,  two 

Colonel  2nd  W.Y.  Militia  ol  . \shford,  Kent,  d.  19  Jan  ,  1839,  at         daughters 

d.  4th  April,   1809  I.angham,  Essex,  m.  12  May,  1801 


iam  Jemmett  M. 
>.  7  May,   1802 


Thomas  M.,  b.  14  Nov.,  1803-    Sibylla  Jane,  d.  of  Wm.  Green,  of  Stan  way    four  other 
Clerk  in  Holy  Orders         |  Hall,  Essex,  m.  13  Sept.,   1831  children 


Thotna-      Emily,     Cordelia^  Eredk.   Barlow     Edmund  =  Margaretta  d.  of  R.   Arthur  M. 


I  William 

M. 

living  in 
N.Z. 

(Sibylla 
Emilv 


d.  ot  J. 

Brown, 

C'h.Ch. 

N.Z 


d.  Jan.  15,  1806 


I  lussey 
M. 


Barter,  ot  St.  Anne's 
Hill,  Cork 


j  sons 

3  daughters 


Mary  Cordelia    Dorothy  Agnes 


Rector  of 
Burgh, 
Wood- 
bridge 


Thomas  —  dau.    of 
in  N.Z.       Rev. 
(1899)  Day 


Charles 

Edmund 


Cordelia 
Mary 


Eleano 


Arthur    Andomar  Dorothy 
Henry      Ed  wan! 


1 

Charles  =  Florence     .< 
Ere  wen     d.  o   Rev.    ' 
M.  A.  Orr, 

d,  Jan. 
8,  188^  Eli 
Al 


Pedigree  of  Maude,  of  Burlcp  in  Wbarfedale. 


William  Mawde  (senior)- -Margaret,  d.  of 


Hurley  Manor  Rolls, 

1550-1555,  land  in  Burley 

and  Mensing-ton 


a  freeholder  of  Burley. 
She  is  mentioned  in  the 
will  of  her  son  Thomas 


Thomas  M.,  land  in  Burley  =  Elizabeth  Christopher   M. 

and  Mensington,  will  of  Burley 
5  May,  1568 


four  daughters 


Kdmund  M.,  ot  Burley, —Agnes,    d. 


an  infant  at  father'? 
death,  m.  at  Otley  1587 

d.  June,  1624, 

inq.  p.m.  Miscel.  Ch. 

22  Jas.    i.  p.  n.  No.^82 


and  co-heir 

of  Stephen 

Hudson, 

of  Stead 


William     M.      =  Maria,  d.  of  Henry  Watkinson, 


b.  at  Burley,  1588 

d.  30  June,  1661 

burd.  Otley, 

2  July,  1661 

will  9  March,  1661 


of  Ilkley.     She  was  a  legatee 

under  will  of  Thomas  Mawde, 

of  Holling  Hall,  Ilkley, 

dated  3  Feb.,  1602 

m.  at  Ilkley,  10  Oct.,  1609 

d.  2  Oct.,  1654 


tf.=Martha,  d.  of  Abraham 
Bynns,  J.P.,  of 
Rishworth  Hall; 
m.  Bingley,  5  Feb.,  1638 


John  M.,  bap.  7  Sept.,  1620,  d.  7  March,  1657— Sarah,  m- 


Officer  in  Cromwell's  Army,  Marston  Moor. 

Legatee  under  will   of  his   godfather,   Wm. 

Vavasour,  3  Sept.,  1642 


19  May, 
1644 


Elizabeth  - 
d.  of  John 
Ampleford 
of  Boston 


Ma 
b.  \ 
162- 
Ot 
De< 


11,  of  Burley— John  M.  — Mrs.  Margaret  Rhodes,  of  Menston,     four  other 


72             buried  Otley, 
25  July,  16X7 

m.  Otley,  n  Dec.,  1678, 

d.  1687 

children 

William    M.=Mary,  dau. 
of  Otley       |                   of 

of  James  Wiggins, 
Tadcaster 

1 
two 
daughters 

William  M.,  of  Otley— Grace,  dau.   of  Edward     four   other 


b.  30  July,  1715, 
buried  Otley 


Heelis,  of  Skibden, 
m.  30  Dec.,  1744 


children 


Edmund  M.,  of  Leeds=Mary,  dau.  of  John  Milthorpe     seven  other 
b.  8  Feb.,  1749  of  Pool,  Yorks.,  children 

d.  12  June,  1829  m.  25  April,  1776,  d.  1786 


William  Milthorpe  M.,  of  Knowsthorpe  House,  Leeds,  J.P.,  I). L.  —  Sarah  Maria,  dau.  of  Jo 


b.  26th  June,  1777,  d.  29  March,  1863 


Both  buried 


b.  1 6  May,  1782,  m. 
at  Roundhay 


ucia    Elizabeth  Maude  M.      Eliza,   Maria,  dau.  of    -Edward  James  M.  —  Georgiana 


.  an    b.  15  Nov.  1810,  d.  at     John  Collis,  d.  July, 
ifant   Knowsthorpe  House,        1843,  m.  Nov.,  18-58 
3  Dec.,  1886 


of  the  Old  Hall, 
Knowsthorpc, 

b.  15  Jul}',  1814, 
d.  16  Sept.,   1805 


Catherine 

dau.  of  F. 

Natusch, 

Esq. 


Arthur  M.,  of  ROM-     > 
Hill,  Rotherham, 
J.P.,  b.  is  July, 

1815, 
d.  10  June,    1860 


zabeth  Collis  M. 

,'mer  William  M.      Ella  Sophia,     Frederick  Natusch  M.  =  Mary  Emily,  Kate  M.    Ethel,  wife  of 

aoth  d.  infants       wife  of  Colonel       Lt. -Colonel  R.E.,        dau.  of  F.  H.  E.    F.    H. 

Karl  Limberger,       b.  12  Nov.  1854  Boott,  Esq.,  Parkinson,  Esq. 

German  Army,  m.  it  Aug-.,  of  Ilkley, 

d.  27  Dec.,  1879  1875  d.  May  24,  1891 


William  Cas 

of  Lincoln' 

Barrister-al 

and  Brackei 

Bournerm 

b.  1 1  Dec. 


Aylmer  Ar 
Joseph  Prob 
b  27  March 


IKMS     An;,  a  Hint   rampant, 
r  all  ttin-c  bars,  ffemels, 


M.  Jane,    dau.    of         nine  other 
m.,  Samuel  children 

I'd.  Hawkesworth 
24  ot 

t>8<)  Hawkesworth 

A  I/HO     John   Maude,   of  Fill  ford  Grange,    York,  father  of  Sarah  Maria,  wife  of 
William  Milthorpe  Maude,  of  Knowsthorpe. 
Of  this  branch  of  the  family  also  were 

(1)  John  Gcrvaise  Maude,  who  married  Harriet,  d.  of  George  Hartwell,  of 
I.aleham,  from  whom  were  descended  Mariann,-.  Lucia,  wife  of  General 
Win.    Pattle,    i yth   Lancers,  and    Frederick   Philip  Maude,  of  the  Inner 
Temple,    Harrister-at-Law,  joint  author  of  Maude  and  Pollock's  Law  of 
Merchant  Sliippiiiff. 

(2)  Rear-Admiral  William  Maude,  d     18  May,   184;,. 

(3)  Post-Captain  John  Maude,  whose  son  William    Henry,   called  alter  his 
godfather,    the   Duke  of  Clarence,   afterwards  William    IV.,  d.  4  Sept., 
1800. 

(4)  Captain  William  George  Maude,  R.N.,  of  Holgate,  York. 


Maude,   Fulford   Grange,  York 
Jnne,  1806,  d.  7  Aii}^.,  1848 


.ha  Matilda,  ilau.   ot    Frederick 
issell,  l-".--(|.,  of  (irang'e   Frin, 
Hildas,  C'ork,  b.  3  July,  1822, 
t  Snaith,  Yorks. ,  25  J;m.,    18^ 
Q()ct.,  1899,  at  Brackenwood, 

Bournemouth 
M.,      Sophia  Dora,  ^ 


n, 


dan.  of  Major  J. 
W.  (',.  Spicer, 
of  Spye  Park, 
Chippenham, 

m.   16  April,  1890 


James   M.,      Margaret,   dau.  of 


b.  i  s  Nov., 

Rev.  1  1.  Nicholson 

ck 

"784. 

d.  _'T  Nov., 
1852 

Rector  of  Adel 
m.   12  Aug.,  1812, 
d.  25  April,   1818 

Edmund    M., 

Pho?be,  dau.   of         threeother 

2,                   of  Middleton 

Francis                     children 

,                            Lodge, 
Beeston, 

Hulmer,  Esq., 
of  York, 

b.  is  Nov.  i8K> 
d.  10  Oct.  1848 

m.  Sept., 

1843 

six  other 
children 


William 


James   F.dnumd  M.      Annie  Louisa, 
dau.  of  Rev. 
H.  Gosse 


Fanny 

Elizabeth     Henry  M.,      of  Moor  Allerton, 
50        m.  io  April,  1890  of  Middle  ton  b.  1847 

Lodge, 

Hertha  Etheldreda   Mary  Beeston,  J.  P.,  Klsie  Bertha 

d.  b.  29  Oct.,  1894  b.  14  Feb.,  b.  Nov.,  1886 

92  1846 


Charles   =Geraldine, 


Bulmer  M. 

Arch- 
deacon of 
Salop,  b. 
29  April, 
1848 


dau.  of 
Alexander 
Donovan, 

Esq., 

m.   Dec., 

1876 


147 

Leeds  Infirmary.  He  was  for  some  time  in  the  service  of  Lord 
Bolton,  and  resided  at  Bolton  Hall  in  \\Vnslcydale,  but  the  latter 
part  of  his  life  was  passed  at  Hurley  House,  where  it  is  said  he  died. 
I  am  privileged  to  present  his  portrait,  admirably  reproduced  from  a 
scarce  miniature  in  colours.  In  the  original  the  coat  is  blue  and  the 
waistcoat  white  with  blue  spots.  I  am  sensible  of  the  value  of  this 
portrait  of  an  old  Yorkshire  worthy,  as  it  is,  I  believe,  reproduced 
from  the  only  original  known.  Likewise  in  the  larger  edition  is  a  full- 
page  reproduction  of  a  scarce  old  engraving  of  the  house  in  1770.* 


THOMAS    MAUDE,   THE    POET. 

There  are  a  number  of  substantial  and  beautiful  residences  in  and 
about  Burley,  including  Greenholme,  the  old  home  of  the  Whitakers, 
and  for  many  years  up  to  the  time  of  his  death  of  the  before  mentioned 

*  According  to  a  MS.  in  the  Hailstone  Collection,  Burley  House  was  built  in  1783 
"  upon  the  foundation  of  an  old  and  respectable  mansion  which  had  stood  150  years." 
This  would  bring  the  date  of  erection  of  this  homestead  to  1633,  whereas  the 
drawing  which  was  taken  in  1770,  or  before  the  present  house  was  built,  shews  it  to 
have  been  in  a  style  prevailing  nearer  the  time  of  1733  than  1633.  The  rooms  of  the 
later  house,  it  is  interesting  to  note,  at  this  time  were  all  papered  and  hung  throughout 
with  hells.  In  1788  it  was  advertised  to  be  let  for  a  term  of  year^. 


148 

Wm.  Fison,  Esq.,  J.P.,  whose  only  son  Fred.  W.  Fison,  Esq.,  is 
at  present  the  energetic  M.P.  for  the  Doncaster  Division.  The 
old  house  stands  charmingly  amidst  sylvan  surroundings  down  by 
the  river,  whose  soothing  murmurs  are  heard  through  the  open" 
windows,  mingling  with  the  constant  cawing  of  rooks,  while  the 
songs  of  birds  and  the  notes  of  the  cuckoo  in  Spring  time  are  familiar 
and  pleasant  sounds.  Hereabouts  in  the  early  part  of  the  century 
were  reared  those  magnificent  short-horn  cattle  (see  page  82)  which 
were  accounted  the  best  breed  of  the  kind  in  the  north  of  England. 
Hard  by  in  an  equally  delightful  parterre,  stands  Wharfeside,  late  the 
J.M,  Residence  of  that  sturdy  and  able  politician  the  Rt.  Hon.  W.  E.  Forster, 

^vho  died  in  1886,  and  whose  widow,  Mrs.  Forster,  only  daughter. of 
Dr.  Arnold,  of  Rugby,  of  blessed  memory,  occupied  the  mansion  up 
>JL/  to  her  death  on  October  2ist  1899.  A  little  further  away  is  Walton 
1  House,  the  seat  of  Captain  Benson.  Burley  Grange  (Mrs.  Hodson), 
is  in  the  town,  and  is  a  handsome  mansion  built  about  fifty  years  ago 
by  J.  Peele  Clapham  Esq.,  who  had  previously  lived  at  Burley  Hall. 
Burley  Lawn  is  the  residence  of  Mrs.  Mumford.  Cathedine,  near  the 
station,  is  a  handsome  modern  residence,  the  seat  of  E,  P.  Arnold- 
Forster  Esq.,  J.P.,  a  son  by  adoption  of  the  late  Rt.  Hon.  W.E.  Forster. 
He  has  recently  succeeded  to  the  chairmanship  of  the  Otley  Bench 
of  Magistrates,  vacant  by  the  death  of  Mr.  Ayscough  Fawkes. 

There  are  also  some  notable  old  houses  in  and  about  the  Main 
Street.  The  jojdest  bearing  a  date  stands  opposite  the  Wesleyan 
Chapel,  and  is  inscribed  over  the  door  M.S.,  1613,  A.S.,  and  on  the 
east  side  is  a  flat-headed  doorway  inscribed  A.D.  1647.  In  this  house 
was  an  old  oak-panelled  room,  and  there  was  a  fine  carved  chimney- 
piece,  which  a  year  or  two  ago  was  removed  to  Greenholme.  Further 
down  the  street  is  a  picturesque  Stuart  house  with  characteristic 
splayed  mullioned  windows  and  continued  string-course,  now  occupied 
by  Dr.  Hebblethwaite,  in  front  of  which  is  a  sundjal  inscribed  _I.M_. 

^1685.  Formerly  there  were  some  ancient  thatched  houses,  single- 
deckers,  built  of  cobbles  from  the  river,  which  were  removed  a  few  years 
ago  for  street  improvements.  They  were  chiefly  located  at  the  top  of 
Peel  Street  and  in  Back  Lane,  at  the  north  end  of  Moor  View.  One 
of  these,  shewn  on  the  accompanying  engraving,  stood  on  the  site  of 
Pickles'  newsagent's  shop.  There  are  some  good  large  inns  in  the 
Main  Street,  lately  rebuilt  or  improved,  including  the  Malt_£hgU£l , 
(near  the  church)  and  Queen's  Head,  and  Red  Lion  higher  up,  on  the 
road  to  Ilkley.  It  was  under  a  large  tre"e  opposite  the  Malt  Shovel 
that  the  now  obsolete  custom  of  serving  the  Burley  Great  Pudding 
took  place.  It  was  made  every  seven  years  and  usually  consisted  of 
about  thirty  stones  of  flour  and  a  similar  quantity  of  other  ingredients. 
A  similar  custom  prevailed  at  Paignton  in  Devonshire,  where  a 
monster  plum-pudding  has  been  made  at  irregular  intervals  since 
1817,  after  the  treaty  of  peace  was  signed  in  the  year  following 


149 

the   great   bread    riots.     The   largest,   made   in    1859,   weighed   little 
short  of  a  ton. 

Burley  Hall,  already  mentioned,  is  the  old  manor  house  and 
former  residence  of  the  Pulleyns.  Thomas  Pulleyn,  as  stated,  died 
at  Hurley  in  1759,  (see  page  66),  and  his  widow  Mrs.  Mary  Pulleyn 
died  at  the  Hall  in  1786,  aged  82.  She  was  great-granddaughter  to 
Dr.  Sterne,  Archbishop  of  York,  (ob.  1683)  her  father  being  Richard 
Sterne  Esq.,  of  Woodhouse  in  the  parish  of  Halifax.  Mrs.  Pulleyn 
was  also  sister  to  the  wife  of  Jeremiah  Rawson  Esq.,  lord  of  the  manor 
of  Bradford.  The  hall  was  almost  wholly  consumed  by  fire,  through 
the  carelessness  of  servants,  in  December,  1822,  and  was  rebuilt  by 


OLD   THATCHED    HOUSES,    BURLEY. 

the  Rev.  T.  F.  Wilson,  lord  of  the  manor,  who  died  in  1837.  The 
view  on  page  142  of  the  previous  Hall  is  produced  from  VVarburton's 
pencil  sketch  made  in  1718  and  now  in  the  British  Museum.  In  the 
distance  are  the  picturesque  heights  of  the  Chevin,  with  a  well-wooded 
foreground.  The  gardens  contain  some  choice  shrubs  and  trees, 
including  a  tulip-tree  about  fifty  feet  high.  In  the  hall  window  is  a 
coat  of  arms,  dated  1725. 

The  house  in  1834,  was  next  leased  and  occupied  by  John  Peel 
Clapham  Esq.,  J.P.,  a  member  of  the  ancient  family  of  Clapham,  and 
a.  branch  of  the  Claphams  of  Beamsley,  whose  lineage  is  set  forth  in 


Glover's  Visitation  of  Yorkshire,  A.D.  1584-5.  Mr.  Clapham,  who  was 
born  in  1801,  was  a  lineal  descendant  of  Francis  Clapham,  who 
married  in  1670,  Ann,  daughter  of  Byran  Longfellow,  of  East 
Morton.*  He  was  treasurer  of  seventeen  County  Courts  in  Yorkshire, 
and  was  a  member  of  the  Congregational  body,  and  largely  through 
his  influence  the  church,  school,  and  manse  at  Burley  were  erected, 
he  giving  the  site,  including  the  burial-ground.  He  also  laid  the 


JOHN    P.   CLAPHAM,    ESQ.,   J.P. 

foundation-stone  of  the  church  in  October,  1839.  He  was  a  gentleman 
of  considerable  literary  attainments,  being  editor  of  the  well-known 
Leeds  Sunday  School  Hymn  Book,  and  author  of  various  hymns  and 
poems,  f  From  Burley  Hall  he  removed  to  Burley  Grange  (which,  as 
stated,  he  built),  and  afterwards  to- Leeds,  but  returning  to  Wharfedale 
his  last  days  were  spent  at  his  residence,  Brookside,  Ilkley,  where  he 


See  the  author's  Old  Bingley,  p.  331.        f  See  Andrews'  Modern  Yorkshire  Poets. 


died  in  the  ;5th  year  of  his  age.  The  following  simple  but  effective 
lines  from  his  pen  seem  to  breathe  of  an  affectionate  attachment  to 
the  rural  quietude  of  Wharfedale. 

MY    HOMK. 

A    MIDNIGHT  THOUGH  1. 
Tell  me,  little  twinkling  star, 
Riding  thy  resplendent  car, 
Do  thy  pale  beams  reach  as  far 

As  my  Home? 

Are  thy  rays  with  others  blending, 
Not  to  Scotia  only  tending 
But  in  England,  now  descending 

On  my  Home? 
Yes !  and  I  behold  in  thee 
A  golden  link  connecting  me 
With  a  spot  I  long  to  see 

For  'tis  Home! 

And  thou  nightly-playing  breeze 
Soft  and  louder  by  degrees, 
Hast  thou  ever  swept  the  trees 

Near  my  Home? 
Rustling  through  the  poplars  tall, 
Whistling  on  the  pear-tree  wall, 
As  the  loose  leaves  gently  fall 

Round  my  Home. 
If  thou  hast,  then  welcome  here. 
Shake  my  casement,  never  fear, 
For  with  keen  delight  I  hear 

Aught  from  Home! 

One  of  Mr.  Clapham's  daughters  is  the  wife  of  Frederick  Wedmore 
Esq.,  the  distinguished  author  and  art  critic,  whose  recent  volume, 
the  joint  production  of  himself  and  daughter,  Miss  Milicent  Wedmore, 
entitled  Pi/ems  of  the  Live  and  Pnde  of  England,  is  indeed  a  book  to 
be  prized.  His  second  son,  Mr.  John  Arthur  Clapham,  who  was  born 
at  Barley  Hall  in  1835  was  for  many  years  corresponding  secretary 
of  the  Bradford  Historical  and  Antiquarian  Society,  and  who  at  the 
present  time  occupies  the  position  of  president  of  that  Society.  The 
Hall  was  afterwards  occupied  by  Thomas  Horsfall,  Esq.,  lord  of  the 
manor  of  Burley,  and  brother  of  the  late  Timothy  Horsfall  Esq.,  of 
Hawksworth  Hall,  who  was  born  at  Goit  Stock,  near  Bingley,*  and 
at  the  time  of  his  death  was  senior  magistrate  on  the  Otley  Bench. 
Mr.  Thomas  Horsfall  died  and  was  buried  at  Burley  Church  in  1861, 
and  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Crofton,  a  widow  lady,  now  resides  at  the 
hall  with  her  married  daughter  and  son-in-law,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Yorke. 
One  noteworthy  object  in  the  Main  Street  is  the  very  handsome 
Celtic  cross,  erected  at  a  cost  of  about  .£250,  by  subscriptions 
limited  in  amount  and  restricted  to  past  and  present  residents  of 

.S'iv  the  author'-;  Old  Ii inkier,  p.  384,  etc. 


'52 

Burley,  as  a  memorial  to  the  late  Rt.  Hon.  W.  E.  Forster,  M.P.  The 
monument  stands  fittingly  in  front  of  the  Lecture  Hall  that  the  firm 
of  which  Mr.  Forster  was  a  partner,  erected  some  years  ago  for  the 
use  of  the  people  of  Burley.  It  is  a  splendid  and  imposing  piece  of 
sculpture  fifteen  feet  in  height,  and  is  a  facsimile  of  the  ancient  and 
celebrated  Columba's  Cross  on  the  island  of  lona.  It  stands  upon  a 
platform  of  three  spreading  steps,  and  upon  its  base  is  the  following 
brief  inscription: — 

To  the  honoured  memory  of 

\V.     E.     FORSTER, 

Horn  1818.     Died  1886. 
This  cross  is  raised  by  his  fellow  villagers. 

The  cross  was  unveiled  in  June,  1892,  in  the  presence  of  a  large 
gathering  by  the  Rt.  Hon.  A.  J.  Mundella,  M.P.,  one  of  Mr.  Forster's 
most  intimate  co-workers  in  the  cause  of  education. 

The  Greenholme  worsted  mills  with  which  Mr.  Forster's  name  is 
associated,  I  have  already  mentioned  as  models  of  cleanliness  and 
good  order.  They  stand  some  little  distance  outside  the  town  and 
are  separated  from  it  by  acres  of  the  greenest  of  pastures.  Tall 
trees  raise  their  stately  proportions  above  the  steep  banks  of  the 
Wharfe  and  partly  overshadow  the  airiest  and  cleanest  of  mill-yards, 
while  the  cawing  of  rooks  and  the  ceaseless  flow  of  the  river  below, 
combined  with  the  general  aspects  of  quietude  and  rusticity,  make  it 
hard  to  believe  that  as  you  stand  here  on  a  working-day  within  these 
massive  white  stone  walls  some  700  to  800  workpeople  are  busily 
employed.  The  mill,  as  I  have  said,  was  originally  a  cotton  factory 
and  sixty  years  ago  was  run  by  Messrs.  Greenwood  and  Whitaker. 
Mr.  Jones  Whitaker,  who  died  in  1850,  and  was  a  noted  short-horn 
breeder,  (see  page  Si)  retired  from  the  business  about  1849,  an(^ 
it  was  then  that  the  property  came  into  the  market.  Mr.  Wm.  Fison, 
who  had  married  a  daughter  of  Mr.  Whitaker,  then  purchased  the 
property  in  conjunction  with  Mr.  W.  E.  Forster,  who  had  up  to  that 
time  been  in  partnership  in  the  wool  business  in  Bradford  with  Mr. 
Wm.  Fison's  elder  brother  ;  the  Fison's,  I  may  add,  being  originally 
tenant  farmers  in  Suffolk.  How  they  obtained  the  Burley  property 
and  how  the  late  Sir  Titus  Salt  missed  it  and  came  to  build  Saltaire, 
is  quite  a  romantic  episode  in  commercial  history,  and  is  best  related 
in  Mr.  Fison's  own  words,  which  I  take  the  liberty  of  quoting  from 
the  Yorkshire  Post  of  some  years  back: — 

We  applied  to  the  solicitor  to  the  estate,  and  received  a  letter  stating  that  the 
property  was  on  offer  to  the  late  Sir  Titus  Salt,  who  had  not  then  founded  his  great 
works  at  Saltaire  and  received  his  title.  The  solicitor  said  that  he  could  not  negotiate 
until  after  one  o'clock  in  the  day,  and  that  if  the  estate  were  not  then  sold  he  would  be 
prepared  to  negotiate.  We  went  at  one  o'clock,  Forster  and  I,  and  the  estate  was  not 
sold.  We  accordingly  made  an  offer.  It  was  not  accepted,  but  ultimately  we  came  to 
terms,  signed  the  agreement  for  the  purchase,  and  were  just  leaving  the  solicitor's 
office  when  who  should  we  meet  but  Mr.  Titus  Salt  coming  up  the  stairs  prepared  to 
increase  his  offer  and  buy  the  property.  Vexed  enough  he  was,  too,  at  his  being  too 


Tl 
O 
3J 
Cfl 

m 

JO 


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33 
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33 

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'53 

laic.  Had  lie  kept  the  appointment  before  one  o'clock  Saltairc  works  would  have  been 
here  instead  of  where  they  are.  That  is  how  we  bought  Greenholme.  Some  may  say 
it  would  have  been  better  lor  Hurley  had  Mr.  Salt  and  not  ourselves  been  the  purchaser-, 
lie  that  as  it  may.  I  think  every  one  will  agree  that  the  beauties  of  the  Wharfe  and 
the  purity  of  its  stream  have  not  suffered  at  our  hands. 

The  old  mill  premises  were  then  pulled  down  and  the  present 
ctunmodious  buildings  erected  in  their  place  in  1850.  The  business 
prospered,  and  while  it  did  so  neither  Mr.  Fison  nor  Mr.  Forster 
neglected  any  opportunity  of  promoting  their  workpeoples  welfare. 
They  founded  the  old  mill-school,  the  first  of  its  kind  in  England, 
and  for  upwards  of  forty  years  the  Greenholme  firm,  latterly  in 
conjunction  with  the  late  Mrs.  Forster  and  Mr.  Fison,  bore  the  whole 
cost  of  its  maintenance.  The  firm  was,  it  is  believed,  the  first  to 
start  a  dining-room  for  the  hands,  and  they  were  also  the  first  to  give 
workpeople  a  holiday  outing.  This  was  in  September,  1849,  and  the 
idea  at  that  time  being  a  novel  one,  and  greatly  appreciated  by 
those  who  took  part  in  it,  an  address  conveying  their  thanks  was 
spontaneously  got  up  by  the  workpeople  and  presented  to  the  firm. 
This  interesting  souvenir  now  hangs  in  the  library  at  Greenholme, 
and  is  worth  quoting  now  that  the  importance  of  reasonable 
recreation  has  come  to  be  so  fully  recognised.  The  address  reads  : 

To    MESSRS.     WM.     FISON    &    Co. 

Gentlemen, — We,  the  undersigned  in  your  employ,  desire  to  express  our  sincere 
and  heartfelt  thanks  for  the  very  great  kindness  shown  by  you  to  us  in  our  Saturday's 
excursion.  We  beg  to  assure  you  that  but  one  feeling  pervades  every  bosom,  and  that 
is  satisfaction.  The  comfort  of  the  arrangements,  the  diversity  of  the  entertainments, 
and  the  liberality  and  condescension  of  our  hosts,  shall  ever  be  remembered  by  us  with 
lively  feeling's  of  gratitude  and  thankfulness. 

We  hope  that  this  party,  combined  with  other  arrangements  which  you  are  so 
nobly  and  generously  making  for  our  comfort,  may  all  tend  to  stir  us  up  to  renewed 
diligence,  and  conduce  to  the  general  welfare  of  all. 

We  are,  gentlemen,  with  every  feeling  of  respect  and  thanks, 

Yot'R  GRATEFUL  WORKPEOPLE. 
Bradford,  September  3rd,  1849. 

Such  are  among  the  beneficial  actions  of  the  modern  founders 
of  Burley  in  the  town  of  their  adoption,  whilst  the  latest  gracious 
act — the  gift  by  Mr.  Wm.  Fison,  J.P.,  of  a  recreation  ground  for  the 
free  use  and  enjoyment  of  the  people  of  Burley  for  ever — not  only 
commemorates,  as  the  generous  donor  intended  it,  the  6oth  year  of 
Her  Majesty's  glorious  reign,  but  also  the  half-century  of  prosperity 
that  has  been  attained  since  Mr.  Fison  first  settled  at  Burley.  The 
ground,  which  occupies  a  pleasant  level  site  between  the  town  and 
the  Wharfe,  and  will  henceforth  be  known  as  "  Fison  Park,"  was 
formally  opened  on  Saturday,  June  23rd,  1899,  when  the  donor's 
able  and  indefatigable  son,  Mr.  Frederick  W.  Fison,  M.P.,  handed 
over  the  deed  of  gift  to  the  chairman  of  the  District  Council  (Mr. 
Edward  Willis,  J.P.),  accompanied  by  a  key  in  case,  suitably 
inscribed,  the  gift  of  Mr.  E.  P.  Arnold-Forster.  Mr.  Fison,  M.P.,  in 
the  course  of  an  interesting  address  feelingly  referred  to  his  old 


154 

schoolmaster  at  Burley,  the  late  Mr.  Thomas  Clark,  who  was  master 
of  the  Greenholme  School  from  1856  to  1897.  On  the  south  side  of 
the  new  park  a  fountain  has  been  erected  as  a  memorial  to  Mr. 
Clark,  which  has  been  subscribed  for  by  600  inhabitants  of  Burley, 
and  handed  over  to  the  District  Council,  who  will  keep  it  in  repair 
and  supply  it  with  water. 

From  all  this  it  will  be  apparent  that  the  most  amicable  relations 
subsisted,  and  continue  to  subsist,  between  the  Greenholme 
employers  and  their  workpeople,  and  it  is  gratifying  to  record  that 
never  since  the  firm  was  established  has  a  strike  or  serious  dispute 
arisen  between  them.  Mr.  Fison  himself  has  been  a  pattern 
employer.  Unambitious  of  great  wealth  or  of  living  on  a  large 
estate,  he  has  modestly  dwelt  "amongst  his  people,"  and  in  the  old 
house  by  the  mill,  has  passed  the  greater  part  of  his  useful  life.  He 
has  been  identified  with  every  philanthrophic  and  charitable  movement 
in  the  town  and  district ;  indeed,  "  charity "  and  welfare  of  others 
would  seem  to  have  been  the  guiding  principle  of  his  life.  He  has 
been  connected  with  many  institutions,  and  as  long  ago  as  1845  he 
was  associated  with  the  old  Ilkley  Bath  Charity,  and  was  a  member 
of  the  first  building  committee  of  the  Home  in  1859,  and  he  has 
watched  its  interests  as  treasurer  continuously  since  1872.  In 
educational  matters  he  has  been  none  the  less  active.* 

Mr.  Forster  likewise  took  great  interest  in  the  old  mill-school 
at  Burley,  and  it  was  no  doubt  here  that  this  most  eminent  and 
progressive  public  servant  which  Wharfedale  has  given  to  the 
country,  laid  his  grand  scheme  of  national  education.  The  present 
Marquis  of  Ripon,  when  Lord  Goderich,  was  a  frequent  visitor  at 
Wharfeside,  and  was  not  less  interested  than  Mr.  Forster  in  the 
successful  work  that  was  being  carried  on  at  the  school  at  Burley. 
Mr.  Fison  tells  a  rather  good  story  of  one  of  his  lordship's  visits  to 
Wharfeside.  It  seems  his  lordship  was  fond  of  a  bottle  of  good  port. 
There  had  been  a  sale  of  wine  at  a  Mr.  Gill's  in  Burley,  and  Mr. 
Forster  bought  a  small  stock  of  valuable  1820  port.  Mr.  Fison 
happened  to  be  dining  with  Lord  Goderich  and  himself,  and  Mr. 
Forster  asked  his  attendant  to  bring  up  a  bottle  of  Gill's  port.  The 
butler,  looking  very  much  astonished  at  the  request,  replied,  "Please 
sir,  you  told  me  to  send  some  wine  to  the  Rifle's  Corps'  supper.  I 
thought  Gill's  bottles  seemed  very  old  and  dirty  and  not  much 
worth,  so  I  sent  them  all  there!"  Mr.  Forster,  of  course,  looked 
much  vexed,  but  the  company  laughed.  Thus  the  prime  old  port 
which  they  should  have  had  was  entirely  consumed  by  the  volunteers, 

*  Since  the  above  humble  tribute  was  written  a  year  agx>,  Mr.  Fison  has  been  called 
to  his  rest.  He  died  on  the  present  writer's  birthday,  April  6th,  1900,  aged  80,  and  was 
interred  at  Otley  Cemetery.  His  useful  and  busy  life  has  ended  full  of  years  and 
honour  and  his  memory  will  ever  be  cherished  with  gratitude. 


and  some  of  them  were  as  they  say  in  Yorkshire,  "fair  capt"  (and 
well  they  might  be)  with  the  quality  of  the  liquor  and  remember  it  to 
this  day. 

Of  Mr.  Forster's  life  and  work  it  is  unnecessary  to  write  here, 
it  has  been  ably  dealt  with  by  man)  pens.  I  may  however  mention, 
what  I  shall  not  soon  forget,  being  present  at  the  impressive 
ceremony  of  the  great  statesman's  burial  in  the  quiet  Wharfedale 
cemetery  in  the  spring  of  1886.  He  died  on  April  5th  and  after  a 
funeral  service  in  Westminster  Abbey,  was  interred  at  Burley  on  the 
Saturday  following.  Hundreds,  if  not  thousands  of  respectful 
mourners,  very  many  of  whom  were  attired  in  black,  gathered  on 
that  occasion  about  the  old  Wharfedale  town,  which  Mr.  Forster  had 
loved  and  cared  for  through  the  best  part  of  his  days.  At  the  grave- 
side were  Mrs.  Forster  and  many  connections  of  the  family, 
prominent  amongst  whom  was  the  tall  and  striking  figure  of  Mr. 
Matthew  Arnold.  The  spot  where  the  distinguished  statesman  lies 
commands  a  lovely  view  of  the  valley,  of  whose  charms  and  rustic 
simplicity  none  had  a  greater  appreciation,  stern  politician  though  he 
was,  than  Mr.  Forster  himself. 

It  is  the  kind  of  wide  and  healthful  scenery  to  foster  the  genius 
of  a  great  poet,  if  scenery  of  this  description  can  be  said  to  exercise 
such  an  influence,  as  it  seems  to  have  done  in  Wordsworth's  case.* 
At  any  rate  Burley  has  in  the  present  generation  produced  a  poet  of 
whom  Wharfedale,  and  even  England,  may  justly  be  proud,  for  in 
William  Watson,  who  was  born  at  Burley,  we  have  a  writer  who  has 
proved  himself  to  be  not  only  a  deep  lover  of  natural  scenery,  but  a 
fervent  patriot,  and  a  singer  who,  I  might  say,  in  his  own  words 

Gathers  fruit  from  every  tree, 
Yea,  grapes  from  thorns  and  fig's  from  thistle-  he 
Pluck'd  by  his  hand,  the  basest  weed  that  grows 
Towers  to  a  lily,  reddens  to  a  rose. 

Mr.  Watson  though  he  has  written  little,  has  done  that  little 
exceedingly  well.  He  has  pre-eminently  the  making  of  a  great  poet 
in  him,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  since  the  Civil  List  pension  of 
;£ioo  a  year  has  been  conferred  upon  him,  his  sensitive  mind  will 
not  be  harassed  by  the  bare  necessities  of  existence,  and  that  his 
true  poetic  bent  and  ripe  scholarship  may  prove  of  real  benefit  to 
English  letters. 


*  Also  in  the  case  of  J.  M.  W.  Turner,  whose  views  of  art  were,  it  is  said,  broadened 
and  inspirited  by  the  grand  open  sweeps  of  Wharfedale  scenery.  Mr.  Ruskin  was  also 
equally  charmed  with  the  scenery,  and  paid  several  visits  to  Wharfedale,  which 
impressed  him  much.  In  1851  he  was  at  Farnley  with  his  wife,  and  again  in  1884. 
Some  delightful  reminiscences  of  these  two  visits  to  Farnley  from  the  pen  of  Mrs. 
Aysrough  Kawkes  appear  in  the  April  number  for  1900  of  the  N'meteenth  Century. 


CHAPTER     X. 


ON   THE   EDGE  OF  THE   MOOR. 

Burley  Wood  Head — The  Rumbalds  Moor  hermit— Ancient  stone  circles — The  old 
hamlet  of  Stead — The  Stead  family — Remarkable  instance  of  continuous  residence 
in  one  spot — Stead  Hall— The  Twistleton  family — Picturesque  aspects — Probable 
site  of  Roman  camp — Prehistoric  remains — Old  local  families — A  moorland  walk  — 
Hawksworth  Hall  and  the  Hawksworths — Old  Menston  families — Menston  Old 
Hall — The  asylum. 

ET  us  now  climb  to  the  breezy  heights  of  Burley  Wood 
Head,  with  the  spreading  moors  around,  and  here  I 
shall  have  to  allude  to  a  character  of  a  very  different 
type  to  those  lately  mentioned.  Everyone  surely  in 
the  West  Riding  of  Yorkshire,  at  any  rate,  has  heard 
of  old  Job  Senior,  the  Rumbalds  Moor  hermit,  whose  bent,  uncouth 
figure,  seeming  half  animal,  half  human,  was  such  a  familiar  object 
to  a  former  generation  of  residents  about  Burley,  Ilkley,  Steeton, 
Bingley,  Keighley,  and  Otley.  Old  Job's  "  mansion "  was  near  the 
Coldstone  Beck  on  Burley  Moor,  and  to  this  spot  on  holidays  crowds 
of  people  used  to  be  attracted  for  the  purpose  of  getting  a  glimpse 
of  the  strange  being  or  of  hearing  him  render  his  stentorian  "  blast." 
The  late  Mr.  Henry  Whitaker,  son  of  Mr.  Jonas  Whitaker,  of 
Greenholme,  knew  the  old  hermit  well,  and  had  several  times 
photographed  him.  I  will  give  his  description  of  him  in  his  own 
words  : 

At  the  top  of  the  Moor  Lane  at  Burley  Wood  Head  you  turn  to  the  right  and 
follow  on  the  higher  Ilkley  road,  passing  over  the  bridge  which  crosses  the 
Coldstone  Beck.  Here  there  is  a  steep  ascent  which  winds  around  the  upper  side  of  a 
rounded  hill,  and  on  arriving1  on  the  top  of  this  path,  the  habitation  of  "Old  Job  Senior, 
the  Wharfedale  hermit,"  could  be  seen.  It  stood  on  a  triangular  plot  of  ground,  which 
he  had  apparently  grabbed  from  what  belonged  to  the  lord  of  the  manor,  for  he  had 
built  a  wall  at  the  bottom  of  a  field  and  enclosed  the  small  triangle  adjoining  Coldstone 
Beck,  the  upper  end  (where  his  hut  or  dwelling  was  placed)  abutting  on  the  Ilkley  road. 
On  this  plot  of  ground  he  used  to  plant  potatoes,  and  he  had  a  primitive  gate  or  latched 
door  which  led  into  his  sanctuary.  At  one  corner  he  had  placed  some  rough  hewn 
large  stones,  which  had  been  set  almost  upright,  and  these  were  crossed  at  the  top  by 
another  rough  unhewn  stone  which  was  obliquely  placed  and  formed  the  top  of  the 
opening  to  the  entrance  of  his  home.  He  had  slated  it  with  irregular  and  undressed 
slates,  and  he  had  dug  sods  of  benty  sward  and  peat,  and  had  left  the  heather  still 
growing  on  the  latter.  These  were  placed  on  the  roof,  which  sloped  at  a  certain  angle, 
so  that  the  rain  water  ran  from  it,  and  he  appeared  to  be  comparatively  dry  as  he  laid 
with  his  legs  bent  at  the  entrance  to  his  primitive  domicile.  Here  he  used  to  hold  high 
court,  but  the  grand  levee  used  to  take  place  on  Sundays,  when  numbers  of  persons 
from  Bradford  and  Leeds  used  to  assemble  in  front  of  his  hut,  whilst  he  gave  them  what 
he  termed  his  "Blast,"  which  was  a  composition  of  his  own,  to  represent  sweet  melody, 
but  rather  to  gratify  the  delusion  of  those  who  were  willing  to  be  deluded  by  a 


'57 

designing  old  man,  who  tbund  that  his  varied  loud  chant  brought  him  a  large  store  of 
copper--  as  h<-  lay  singing  on  his  bed  of  dried  brackens  and  heather.  When  he  made 
his  ablutions  I  never  heard,  but  there  was  plenty  ot  pure  water  in  Coldstone  Heck  close 
to  where  he  was  living.  lie  had  threat  compass  ot  voice,  and  his  lowest  notes  were  most 
powerful.  They  sounded  like  the  muftled  tones  ot  a  maddened  bull  when  he  is 
bellowing  in  a  rage;  and  then  he  used  to  modulate  the  tones  until  they  became  a  loud 
-lean  and  ended  in  a  shriek  as  he  gave  his  hearer-,  the  different  variations  ot  his  own 
sung,  which  he  called  "  ("wedding  Anthem  i'  twu  voices." 

Often  when  we  have  been  going  up  to  Ilkley  Moors  to  shoot  moor-game  at  break 
ol  day  we  have  stopped  to  listen  to  old  Job,  who  had  then  no  audience  but  was  generally 
singing  the  looth  Psalm,  and  it  was  beautifully  sung,  his  loud  voice  echoing  amongst  the 
rocks  above,  and  sounding  far  down  into  the  valley.  Let  us  hope  that  this  was  genuine 
and  sincere  praise  by  the  old  man,  for  then  he  had  no  interested  persons  about  him  and 
must  have  been  imbued  with  some  sense  of  reverential  feeling. 

A  very  fair  representation  of  Old  Job  is  to  be  seen  on  the 
sign-board  of  the  Hermit  Inn  at  Burley  Wood  Head.  He  died  in 
1857,  aged  77,  and  his  burial  in  the  churchyard  at  Burley  was 
witnessed  by  crowds  of  interested  onlookers.  Such  like  eccentrics 
are  now  of  the  past,  and  are  not  likely  to  be  seen  again. 

On  Burley  Moor  is  a  rude  stone  circle  consisting  of  twelve 
upright  blocks,  and  on  Hawksworth  Moor  is  a  circle  of  about  twenty 
stones,  which  is  figured  and  described  in  my  "Old  Bingley."  They 
have  been  ancient  British  sepulchral  enclosures,  commonly  called 
Druids'  Circles. 

On  the  edge  of  the  moor  and  forming  part  of  the  township 
of  Burley  is  the  retired  and  picturesque  hamlet  of  Stead,  a  very  old 
settlement  of  some  note,  which  had  until  lately  a  hall  or  manor- 
house,  and  where  traces  of  ancient  ploughing  in  the  once  unenclosed 
field  are  still  apparent.  The  corn-lands  of  Stead  (where  now  all  is 
grass  and  moor)  are  mentioned  five  and  a  half  centuries  ago. 
Elizabeth,  wife  of  Thomas  Paytfin  of  Headingley,  who  was  a 
daughter  of  Sir  John  Calverley,  gave  by  her  last  will  to  Esholt 
Nurmery,  of  which  her  sister  Isabel  was  made  prioress  in  1353,  all 
her  corn  in  Burley  and  in  Le  Stede.* 

The  locality  is  called  from  the  A-Saxon  stade,  an  inhabited 
place,  a  town,  and  gave  name  to  a  family  of  considerable  standing, 
who  lived  here  for  many  centuries.  Though  never  lords  of  the 
manor  they  were  for  a  long  period  the  largest  landholders  in  the 
township  of  Burley.  In  the  Poll  Tax  for  A.D.  1379  Peter  de  Stede, 
franklan,  heads  the  list  of  tax-payers  in  Burley,  being  rated  at  35.  4d., 
while  the  remaining  tax-payers  are  assessed  at  4d.  each.  Robert 
de  Stede,  probably  a  son  of  Peter,  pays  4d.  In  A.D.  1500  John 
Vavasour,  Esq.,  of  Newton,  held  lands  &c.  in  Burley,  and  two 
messuages  with  nine  bovates  of  land  in  Stead.  At  the  same  time 
William  Calverley,  afterwards  Sir  William,  held  nine  bovates  of  land 
in  Stead,  as  of  his  manor  of  Burley.  The  Calverleys  had  owned 
the  whole  manor  of  Burley,  as  we  have  seen,  already  two  centuries. 

*  See  Burton's  Man.  Ebor.  p.  139. 


158 

Sir  William's  daughter,  Agnes,  was  second  wife  of  John  Vavasour,  of 
Weston,  who  was  living  in  1505.  In  1546  Henry  VIII.  granted  the 
manor  of  Stead,  then  held  by  Sir  William  Calverley,  to  William 
Ramsden  and  Richard  Vavasour,  and  the  heirs  of  the  said  William 
for  ever.  The  Vavasours  resided  at  Stead  Hall.  Sir  Wm.  Calverley's 
first  wife  was  a  Middleton,  of  Stockeld,  and  subsequently  we  find  the 
manor  of  Burley  held  by  this  family. 

The  Steads  however,  were  still  the  principal  landholders  in 
Burley  at  this  time.  In  1523  John  Steyd,  or  Stead,  of  Burley,  was 
collector  of  taxes  for  Skyrack,  and  himself  was  rated  for  lands  in 
Burley,  2S.,  while  Wm.  Steyd,  of  Burley,  paid  2s.  4d.  Also  Robert, 
son  of  Sir  Wm.  Calverley,  was  rated  at  i2d.  for  his  lands  within  the 
same  township.  From  papers  in  the  vestry  of  Otley  church  I  gather 
that  William  Vavasour,  of  Stead  Hall,  (will  dated  1642)  left  Mary 
Pulleyn  his  sole  heir,  his  aunt  Agnes  having  married  John  Pulleyn 
of  Killinghall*;  and  she,  the  said  Mary,  by  indenture  dated  1645, 
left  a  rent  charge  of  ^10  per  annum  to  the  church  at  Otley,  paid 
out  of  a  farm  at  Stead, f  which  in  1748  belonged  to  Mr.  Stansfield,  of 
Bradford,  and  was  then  in  the  occupation  of  Wm.  Windsor.  At  this 
time  the  Pulleyns  owned  the  manor  of  Burley,  as  observed  a  few 
pages  back. 

The  Steads,  most  probably  from  the  Conquest,  continued  to 
reside  at  Stead  until  the  middle  of  the  present  century,  an  almost 
unexampled  instance  of  "  steady "  (vide  Bardsley  on  Surnames)  and 
unbroken  residence  of  one  family  in  so  small  a  place.  Maude,  the 
poet  (1782)  mentions  an  aged  couple,  Michael  and  Mary  Stead,  who 
were  born,  bred,  and  died  in  this  village,  after  60  years  of  married 
life.  The  man,  who  had  never  been  ten  miles  from  home,  died  in 
1764,  aged  upwards  of  one  hundred,  and  his  equally  home-fond 
spouse  died  in  1762,  aged  98.  Dr.  Shaw  adds  that.  Stead  Hall  once 
belonged  to  the  Steads,  and  that  they  sold  it  to  the  Pulleyns,  but  see 
above. 

The  old  hall  was  pulled  down  some  years  ago,  and  there  are 
now  only  two  or  three  dwellings.  The  hall  farm,  with  an  old  orchard 
attached,  is  at  present  occupied  by  Mr.  Tom  Twisleton,  the  well-known 
Craven  dialect-poet.  He  removed  here  with  his  wife  about  three 
years  ago,  having  been  previously  ten  years  at  Esholt  and  seven 
years  at  picturesque  Burnsall,  higher  up  Wharfedale.  "  Lang  Tom 
fra'  Winskill,"  as  he  generally  signed  himself  (being  what  is  known 
as  a  strapping  well-built  fellow),  was  bred  and  born  among  the  crags 
of  Craven,  and  his  volume  of  Splinters  struck  off  'Winskill  Jtock,  first 
published  in  1867,  has  run  through  several  editions.  His  ancestors 
have  lived  in  the  Craven  dales  from  time  immemorial,  and  at  least 

*  See  the  author's  Nidderdale,  p.  319  etc. 

f  A  copy  of  the  will  of  Mary  Pulleyn,  of  Stead,  dated  1656,  is  at  Otley  Church. 


one  of  the  family  carried  bow  and  battle-axe  after  the  Shepherd 
Lord  Clifford  to  the  decisive  battle  of  Flodden.  No  doubt  they  took 
their  name  from  Twisleton,  a  manor  within  the  parish  of  Ingleton.  A 
John  de  Twisleton  appears  as  the  owner  of  a  mill  at  Twisleton  in  1300. 
Tom's  father,  Francis  Twisleton,  was  a  very  small  twin-child, 
remembered  about  Settle  as  one  of  the  tiniest  babies  ever  seen.  The 
wise  folk  of  Winskill  said  he  must  have  been  sent  by  the  fairies. 
But  the  bracing  air  of  crag-land  soon  set  him  "  on  his  pins,"  and  he 
began  to  grow.  In  the  prime  of  life  he  scaled  twenty-four  stones, 
and  stood  6  feet  2^2  inches  in  his  stockings,  being  commonly  known 
as  the  Craven  giant.  His  son,  the  poet,  married  a  Morphet,  of 
Kirkby  Lonsdale,  by  whom  he  has  had  a  family  of  rive  sons  and 
three  daughters.  The  rustic  abode  he  now  inhabits  seems  full  of  the 
poetry  of  ages,  built  of  the  rough  moor  grit,  dark  and  weathered, 
and  looking  afar  down  the  valley  upon  a  scene  that  one  might 
suppose  would  send  even  ordinary  mortals  into  poetic  rhapsodies. 
When  I  called  a  year  or  two  ago  wild  flowers  were  just  beginning  to 
bloom  in  the  lanes  and  hedge-rows,  and  all  in  good  time  there  were 
on  the  window-sill  of  the  clean  and  tidy  kitchen  where  I  sat  two  or 
three  pots  brimming  with  wild  star-anemones,  primroses,  and  golden 
celandines,  the  latter  being  Wordsworth's  floral  favourite.  As  I  sat 
near  the  open  door  I  could  hear  the  cry  of  moorland  peewits,  and 
then  all  at  once  the  blithesome  sound  of  "  cuckoo "  came  dreamily 
and  pleasantly  from  the  same  distant  fringe  of  moorland;  the  same 
sweet  twin-notes  familiar  to  us  each  recurring  spring  as  no  doubt  they 
were  ages  ago  to  the  sturdy  legions  from  ancient  Rome,  who  passed 
close  by  here  on  their  way  to  the  capital  station  at  Ilkley. 

About  the  Lower  Stead  farm  the  ground  stands  out  and  raised 
in  camp-like  fashion,  but  without  any  definite  demarcation,  and 
commands  a  wide  and  enchanting  view  of  the  valley  southwards. 
It  is  just  the  place  to  expect  to  rind  a  "burgh,"  or  "stead"  (such  as 
that  at  Bramhope)  lying  as  it  does  under  the  edge  of  Rumbalds  Moor, 
and  close  to  the  Roman  way  above  alluded  to.  Very  probably  the 
present  road  at  Burley  Wood  Head  is  laid  on  the  line  of  this  old 
Roman  thoroughfare,  as  it  is  scarcely  likely  that  the  road  after  going 
over  the  summit  of  the  Chevin  would  descend  into  the  valley  anywhere 
near  the  present  town  of  Burley.  The  direction  of  the  road  on  the 
Chevin  points  indeed  over  high  ground  to  the  north  of  Menston  and 
along  Burley  Wood  Head  by  Stead  to  Ilkley.  But  no  evidences  of 
its  presence  in  this  immediate  locality  have  been  discovered  within 
living  memory  that  I  can  find.  A  valuable  and  most  interesting 
tore  or  necklace  of  gold  was,  however,  found  in  close  proximity  to 
this  road  between  the  Chevin  and  Adel  in  the  early  part  of  this 
century.  But  what  has  become  of  it  I  do  not  know.  A  similar 
kind  of  tore  was  found  on  Rawdon  Billing.  There  are  some 
prehistoric  enclosures  and  a  barrow  or  two  on  the  moor  above  Stead. 


i6o 

Adjoining  Lower  Stead  farm  is  the  large  and  handsome  modern 
mansion  of  Moorville  (Peter  Garnett,  Esq.,)  and  to  the  east  is  Colston, 
the  seat  of  H.  Rouse,  Esq.,  the  present  owner  of  the  Stead  estate. 

From  Burley  Wood  Head  it  is  a  pleasant  walk  eastwards  to 
Ilkley  (2  m)  or  westwards  to  Hawksworth  and  Baildon  (5  m).  This 
truly  high  road  commands  a  fine  view  of  the  valley,  with  villa  and 
farm  and  winding  river  in  endless  panorama.  Beyond  the  Wood 
Head,  going  westwards,  a  road  branches  to  Menston  and  Guiseley, 
and  another  turns  to  the  right  over  high  ground  to  the  old  Gaping 
Goose  farm  (formerly  an  inn)  whence  an  old  paved  saddle-lane 
(locally  known  as  "T'owd  Saddle  Loin")  leads  by  the  farm  at 
Faweather  (once  a  grange  of  Rievaulx  Abbey*)  to  Baildon  and 
Bingley.  About  Burley  Wood  Headf  a  good  deal  of  "improvement'' 
has  gone  on  of  late  years  through  the  development  of  the  district  by 
the  railway.  A  century  ago  there  were  two  small  cotton-mills  on 
the  rivulet  that  runs  down  from  the  moor.  Plane  Tree  House  was 
the  home  of  the  Gill  family,  who  have  lived  in  the  chapelry  of  Burley 
for  at  least  two  centuries.  Most  of  the  old  families  have  however 
disappeared  now  and  some  of  the  old  farm-lands  have  been  converted 
into  building  sites.  The  Beanlands  family  had  for  a  long  period  a 
good  farm  here  which  was  inherited  by  John  Beanlands,  of  Bingley, 
which  some  time  before  his  death  in  1862  he  sold  to  his  cousin 
Timothy  Horsfall,  whose  son  Thomas  Horsfall,  Esq.,  was  lord  of  the 
manor  of  Burley.  He  married  a  daughter  of  Wm.  Garnett,  of  Otley 
Paper  Mills,  and  sister  to  the  Rev.  Richard  Garnett,  of  the  British 
Museum  (see  page  89)  and  left  three  sons  (i)  Wm.  Benjamin, 
attorney-at-law ;  (2)  Arthur  Beanlands,  M.A.,  J.P.,  who  died  in  1898. 
He  received  his  early  education  at  Bingley  Grammar  School, 
Yorkshire,  and  some  time  after  his  marriage  settled  in  Canada,  where 
he  became  a  member  of  the  senate  of  Durham  University,  Canada, 
and  for  forty  years  was  its  treasurer.  His  son,  the  Rev.  Canon 
Beanlands,  M.A.,  is  at  present  Rector  of  the  Cathedral  in  Victoria, 
Canada,  and  vice-president  of  the  Society  of  Yorkshiremen  in  that 
country  ;  (3)  the  Rev.  Charles  Beanlands,  M.  A.,  Vicar  of  St.  Michael's, 
Brighton,  who  died  unmarried  in  1898. 

Stephen  Fawcett,  the  Wharfedale  poet,  son  of  a  Burley  farmer, 
was  born  in  1807  and  long  resided  at  Burley  Wood  Head.  A  Charles 
Kirby,  who  published  some  Wharfedale  poems,  describes  himself  as 
"The  Wharfedale  poet,"  but -I  can  learn  little  about  him.  In  1872 
appeared  his  Harp  of  Wharfedale  (Leeds  :  Bernard  and  Co.). 

*  See  the  author's  Airedale,  p.  156  etc. 

f  Burley  Wood  Head  "takes  its  name  from  a  whimsical  joiner,  who  about  a 
century  ago,  built  a  house  here,  for  which  he  formed  a  wooden  head,  and  placed  it  on 
the  ridge  of  the  house."  MS.  History  of  Wharfedale  (1807).  This  is  a  remarkable- 
explanation  seeing  that  the  name  of  Burley  Woodhead  occurs  in  deeds  of  the  171)1 
century.  "Burley  Woodhead  Intacks"  are  mentioned  in  1642. 


Baildon,  Hawksworth,*  Menston,  and  Guiseley,  are  healthy  and 
pleasant  places,  all  in  the  ancient  parish  of  Otley.  Hawksworth 
Hall,  a  fine  old  Elizabethan  mansion,  on  the  site  of  former  homesteads 
no  doubt  dating  back  to  Norman  times,  was  for  centuries  the  seat  of 
the  Hawksworth  and  Fawkes  families,  as  already  described.  There 
are  many  early  deeds  at  Farnley  Hall  relating  to  this  ancient  family 
patrimony.  One  of  these,  dated  1440,  mentions  Thomas  Hawkes- 
worth,  Esq.,  as  then  the  owner,  and  in  that  year  he  grants  and 
demises  a  farm  to  his  son  and  heir,  John  Hawkesworth,  "the  site 
and  mansion  of  his  manor  of  Hawksworth,  with  all  his  demesne  lands 
to  the  said  manor  belonging.''  Another  deed,  dated  1351,  mentions 
John  de  Hawkesword  as  parson  of  the  church  of  Guiseley.  There 
are  also  at  Earnley  Hall  many  old  deeds  relating  to  Menston.  Alan 
de  Brearhaugh  (of  Brearhaugh  near  Harewood)  appears  to  have  been 
the  founder  of  a  family  which  was  living  at  Menston  from  the  time 
of  Edward  II.  to  about  1500.  In  1650  a  VVm.  Breary  LL.D.,  was 
rector  of  Guiseley.  In  1421  John  Elenson,  of  Menston,  gave  a  bond 
for  all  his  goods  and  chattels  to  Thomas  de  Hawkesworth,  Robert  de 
Ottelay,  chaplain,  and  others.  There  was  also  an  old  family  of 
Roodes,  or  Rhodes,  living  at  Roodes  in  the  vill  of  Menston  in  the  i6th 
century.  The  court  rolls  of  Menston  go  back  to  the  days  of  Edward 
III.,  and  there  is  one  dated  1489  called  Curia  Militaris  of  Thomas 
Hawkesworth.  The  old  hall  at  Menston,  the  seat  of  Col.  Charles 
j'airfax  (one  of  \vHostTsons  became  Dean  of  Norwich)  in  the  Civil 
War  time  is  now  a  farm-house  tenanted  by  Mr.  Jennings  Popplewell, 
and  was  lately  purchased  by  Mr.  Hart,  son  of  the  late  vicar  of  Otley. 
An  old  deed  kept  in  the  house  mentions  Fairfax  lands  as  belonging 
to  the  property.  Menston  New  Hall  is  the  large  farmhouse  seen 
from  the  Bradford  road  and  south-east  of  the  village.  It  was  built 
by  one  of  the  Rhodes  family  in  1740.  Confusion  sometimes  arises 
between  the  two. 

Menston  has  now  a  melancholy  fame  as  the  scene  of  the  latest 
County  Lunatic  Asylum,  yet  it  is  pleasant  to  reflect  that  in  this  huge 
institution,  whose  gables  and  towers  are  a  conspicuous  landmark  for 
many  miles  around,  every  provision  is  made  for  the  comfort  and  well- 
being  of  the  patients,  while  the  management  is  all  that  can  be  desired. 
The  buildings  which  were  erected  about  twelve  years  ago,  occupy 
part  of  an  estate  of  300  acres  which  the  West  Riding  Justices  bought 
from  Mr.  Ayscough  Fawkes  of  Farnley  Hall.  They  are  intended  to 
accommodate  1500  patients  and  have  cost,  it  is  calculated,  about  a 
quarter  of  a  million  pounds  sterling,  inclusive  of  the  site. 

*  The  well-known  Hawkstone  near  here  is  a  curious  geological  phenomenon,  being 
part  of  the  natural  cliff  overhanging  the  valley  which  has  slipped  so  as  to  form  a 
natural  rock-shelter.  In  Archbishop  Gray's  Register  for  1228,  I  find  mention  of  a 
"  Hauekestan  "  as  a  boundary-stone,  but  it  is  evidently  not  our  Hawkstone.  There  is  a 
Hawkstone  in  Halifax  parish. 


CHAPTER     XI. 


Tin-:   PARISH  OK   WKSTON. 

Rural  aspect-  -Antiquity  of  I  he  parish  -Manorial  history  The  manor  never  once  sold 
from  the  Norman  Conquest  to  the  present  time  Weston  Hall  Old  tithe-barn 
The  Norman  Church  The  tithes  View  of  the  surrounding1  country  Whin  Castle 
I  >'  >i;'  Park,  an  old  Forest  l.odj^e  Askwith,  meaning  of  its  name  Historical 
records  The  family  of  Askwith  The  Kendalls  (  )|(|  Ouaker  Meeting-House — 
\Veslevans  \'illag-e  inns — Askwith  Feast. 

JESTON  is  another  of  those  delightful  old  Whartedale 
villages  whose  history  goes  back  to  the  remote  past, 
and  though  historically  speaking  a  parish-town,  it  now 
has  the  appearance  of  but  a  diminutive  and  scattered 
hamlet.  Few  buildings  are  visible,  save  its  old  hall, 
church,  and  tithe-barn,  and  at  the  top  of  the  village  is  "  Weston 
Manor1'  (now  being  rebuilt),  while  beneath  the  shadow  of  a 
magnificent  old  elm  tree  stands  the  one  stone  remnant  of  the  old 
village  stocks. 

The  manor  seems  to  have  been  an  appurtenance  of  Otley,  and 
to  have  been  separated  from  that  parish  before  the  Conquest,  and 
made  a  small  parish  of  its  own,  with  a  separate  endowed  church. 
Soon  afterwards  the  parish  took  in  Dob  or  Dog  Park,  and  Askwith 
with  Snowden.  In  the  Domesday  survey  "  VVestone  "  (doubtless  the 
town  west  of  Otley*)  is  stated  to  have  been  held  in  the  reign  of  the 
Confessor  by  one  Torbrand,  who  had  five  carucates  for  geld  (400 
acres)  to  be  worked  on  the  two-field  system  by  five  ploughs.  It  was 
granted,  with  Askwith,  and  a  number  of  other  manors  in  Yorkshire 
which  had  belonged  to  the  same  Saxon  owner,  to  Berenger,  son  of 
Robert  de  Todeni,  who  in  1086  had  four  villanes  with  one  plough, 
together  with  a  church  and  a  priest  in  Weston,  who  had  a  couple  of 
acres  of  meadow.  The  whole  manor  comprised  a  square  leuga, 
which  is  stated  by  Mr.  Pell  to  contain  1,440  statute  acres,  and  of  this 
one-half  was  mast-woodland.  The  township  of  Weston  now  contains 
1,280  statute  acres,  and  Askwith  has  3,180  acres,  which  together 
form  the  parish. 

In  1284-5  tne  manor  of  Weston  was  held  by  Wm.  de  Stopham 
for  one-fourth  part  of  a  Knight's  Fee  of  John  de  Vesci,  and  the  said 
John  of  the  king.  By  the  i\ominn  kiliarum  of  1315  the  said  William 
de  Stopham,  or  his  son  of  the  same  name,  is  returned  as  lord  of  the 
manor  of  Weston.  Torre  merely  observes  that  Weston  was  held  of 

''    There  are  forty  VVestuns  in  England. 


164 

the  Castle  of  Skipton,  which  is  explained  by  the  fact  of  the  heiress 
of  De  Vesci  marrying  a  Clifford,  lord  of  the  honour  of  Skipton  (see 
page  133).  Then  by  the  marriage  of  Alice,  daughter  and  heiress  of 
the  above  William  de  Stopham,  to  Sir  Maugher  le  Vavasour,  of 
Hazlewood,  the  manor  passed  to  the  Vavasours,  of  whom  worthy 
old  Fuller  wrote  in  the  days  of  Charles  II.,  "  they  never  married  an 
heir,  nor  buried  their  wives,"  a  statement,  however,  as  we  have  seen, 
not  strictly  correct*  For  more  than  five  centuries  the  manor  was 
retained  in  the  male  line  of  this  ancient  house,  when  by  the  death 
in  1833  of  William  Vavasour,  Esq.,  J.P.  and  D.L.  of  the  West 
Riding,  it  descended  to  the  Rev.  John  Carter,  of  Lincoln,  vicar  of 
Weston,  who  married  Ellen,  only  sister  and  heiress  of  Wm.  Vavasour. 
On  the  death  of  her  husband  she  married  a  seconfd  time,  and  died 
in  1845,  when  her  son,  Wm.  Vavasour  Carter,  Esq.,  inherited  the 
estates.  He  died  in  1852  at  the  early  age  of  28,  when  his  eldest 
sister,  Emma  Carter,  wife  of  Chr.  Holdsworth  Dawson,  Esq.,  of  Royds 
Hall,  Low  Moor,  succeeded  to  the  property.  Mr.  Dawson  died  in 
1869,  and  there  is  a  beautiful  stained  glass  window  placed  to  his 
memory  in  the  church.  His  widow,  Mrs.  Emma  Dawson,  died  in 
1880,  and  the  handsome  east  window  in  the  private  pew  on  the  north 
side  of  the  church  was  placed  there  to  her  memory  by  the  National 
United  Order  of  Free  Gardeners,  of  which  she  was  an  honorary 
member,  and  in  whose  prosperity  Mrs.  Dawson  took  great  interest. 
Mrs.  Dawson  also  maintained  at  her  own  cost  the  well-known  "Emma" 
lifeboat  at  Redcar.-|-  The  eldest  son  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  C.  H.  Dawson 
is  Colonel  Wm.  Chr.  Dawson,  the  present  owner  of  Weston,  who 
resides  at  the  hall.  It  thus  appears  that  the  manor  and  estate  of 
Weston  have  never  once  been  sold,  but  have  descended  by  lawful 
marriage  and  inheritance  of  its  various  owners  from  the  Norman 
Conquest  to  the  present  time. 

In  1378  there  appears  to  have  been  a  dozen  inhabited 
tenements  at  Weston,  and  the  Poll  Tax  for  this  year  gives  the  names 
of  their  occupants.  But  the  lord  of  the  manor  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  living  at  Weston  at  this  time,  or  rather  his  lady,  for  the 
vill  of  Hazlewood  gives  the  name  of  Elizabeth  Vavasour,  veoue, 
(widow)  as  paying  her  lord's  tax  of  2os.  being  the  prescribed  rate  of 
assessment  for  a  knight  or  chivaler.  But  the  Hall  may  have  been 
occupied  by  a  member  of  the  family  as  Agnes,  daughter  of  Thomas 
of  the  Hall,  appears  in  the  Weston  list  among  the  ordinary  tenants' 

*  See  also  Harl  MSS.,  1400,  fo.  74,  and  Nicholas'  Historic  Peerage.  The  Vavasours 
first  appear  in  Craven  as  feudatories  of  the  Romilles  in  the  middle  of  the  I2th  century, 
when  William  Vavasor  held  half  a  knight's  fee  in  Addingham  and  Draughton,  of  the 
Honor  of  Skipton.  Vide  Lib.  Nig.  Scacc.  I.,  322-3. 

•(•  The  memorial  tablet  on  the  X.  wall  to  the  same  lady  was  erected  by  the  Redcar 
Life  Boat  crew. 


rate  of  .}d.*  The  name  of  Allies  Vavasour  moreover  appears  at  this 
time,  although  the  pedigrees  shew  no  Agnes  as  a  daughter  of  Thomas. 
This  is,  however,  the  first  distinct  allusion  to  Weston  Hall. 

The  present  manor-house  is  a  fine  old  mansion  in  the  Tudor 
style,  as  is  also  the  detached  banqueting-hall  on  the  east  side  of  the 
adjoining  grounds.  The  latter  building  is  thickly  ivy-clad,  and 
contains  shields  of  arms  of  Vavasour  and  Stanley.  There  were 
also  originally  in  the  windows  armorial  devices  of  the  great  families 
of  Claro  wapentake,  all  of  whom,  no  doubt,  had  at  one  time  or 
another,  enjoyed  the  old  lords  of  Weston's  hopitality  in  this  picturesque 
roomy  building.  In  front  of  the  Hall  is  a  magnificent  cedar  of 
Lebanon,  one  of  the  finest  and  oldest,  I  should  think,  in  the  kingdom. 
The  one  planted  by  Dr.  Richardson  in  front  of  Bierley  Hall  near 
Bradford,  about  the  year  1710,  is  said  to  be  the  oldest  in  England, 
and  was  sent  to  Bierley  as  a  seedling  by  his  friend,  Sir  Hans  Sloane, 
president  of  the  Royal  Society.  In  1812  the  trunk  of  this  Bierley 
tree  measured  12^  feet  in  girth,  some  distance  from  the  ground.  It 
began  to  fail  a  few  years  ago,  and  is  now  dead.  Cones  of  the  cedar 
were  first  produced  in  England  in  Chelsea  Gardens  in  1766,  but 
when  the  tree  was  originally  imported  into  this  country  is  not  exactly 
known.  The  pond  near  Weston  Hall  is  the  resort  of  various  water 
birds,  the  wild  duck  breeding  here  regularly.  Worthy  of  note  here, 
and  a  novelty  that  might  be  introduced  in  many  estates,  is  the  large 
and  handsome  swimming-bath,  erected  in  a  retired  part  of  the 
grounds  about  four  years  ago  for  the  family's  private  use. 

At  the  back  of  the  hall  is  a  spacious  and  lofty  tithe-barn  of 
about  the  same  age  as  the  hall,  all  the  roof-timbers  and  props  being 
of  forest-oak.  Not  far  away,  I  am  informed,  stood  the  ancient 
parsonage  which  was  abandoned  and  in  ruins  early  this  century. 
Hard  by  is  the  interesting  old  Domesday  church,  some  original 
portions  of  which  are  still  in  evidence  in  the  rude,  wide-jointed 
masonry  of  the  south  wall,  which  has  a  narrow,  round-headed  light, 
deeply  splayed  on  the  inside  only.  Singularly  this  interesting  old 
church  seems  never  to  have  been  described.  In  the  i6th  century 
some  alterations  were  evidently  made  in  the  church,  including  the 
insertion  of  a  large  window  in  the  south  wall,  and  not  long  afterwards 
I  find  that  a  local  resident,  one  William  Kendall,  of  Askwith,  by  will 

*  A  Thomas  de  Weston  appears  in  the  accounts  of  Bolton  Abbey  for  1298-9.  Also 
a  John,  son  of  Matilda  de  Weston  appears  in  the  Registers  of  Archbishop  Walter 
Giffard  (1265-79)  among  the  list  of  contributors  to  the  Crusade  in  1276.  He  had 
assaulted  the  parish  priest  of  Gargrave  and  for  this  affray  he  must  either  go  on  the 
Crusade  or  give  to  it  a  third  part  of  his  goods.  A  fruitless  and  risky  undertaking,  as 
Jerusalem  had  been  stormed  and  taken  by  the  Saracens  in  1244;  and  at  the  siege  of 
Saphet  in  1266,  130  Christian  knight's  and  760  fighting  men  had  been  beheaded  by  the 
Soldan  of  Egypt,  tor  refusing  to  renounce  their  faith.  Finally  by  the  capture  of  Acre 
in  1291,  the  last  stronghold  of  the  Christians  in  the  Holy  Land  had  been  taken  from 
them.  See  Kenrick's  Knights  Templars, 


i66 

dated  February  23rd  1557,  left  38.  4d.  towards  maintaining  a  light  on 
the  high  altar.  An  eastward  extension  of  the  chancel  was  made  in 
1819,  and  the  nave  was  restored  at  the  same  time,  the  former  by  the 
patron  of  the  church,  Wm.  Vavasour,  Esq.,  and  the  latter  by  the 
parishioners.  The  present  porch,  as  appears  by  the  date  upon  it, 
was  erected  in  1685.  There  is  no  tower,  only  a  small  bell-turret  at 
the  west  end.  The  absence  of  a  tower,  probably  led  to  the  poet 
Gray  mistaking  the  inconspicuous  church  for  offices  belonging  to  the 
mansion. 

In  the  interior  are  various  armorial  emblazonments;  also  within 
a  recess  on  the  north  side  of  the  chapel  of  the  Vavasours,  is  an 
ancient  ridged  tomb  bearing  a  shield  with  the  bend  dexter  of  the 
Stophams,  and  a  plain  cross-hilted  sword  beneath  it,  of  a  style 
prevailing  at  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century.  But  the  tomb  has 
been  attributed  to  the  last  of  the  Stophams,  who  was  living  in  1312. 
Above  it  is  an  inscription  describing  his  descent.  On  the  chancel 
floor  are  portions  of  two  early  grave-slabs  bearing  headless  incised 
Calvary-crosses.  Another  tomb  on  the  north  side  of  the  chancel 
commemorates  Wm.  Vavasour,  who  died  in  1587,  and  upon  it  are 
shields  of  Kighley  (a  fess)  Vavasour  (a  fess  dancette),  Stopham  (a 
bend  dexter)  and  another  shield  not  hitherto  explained.  It  bears 
three  lozenges,  two  and  one,  on  each  a  bendlet.*  There  are  several 
raised  ornaments  on  the  capitals  of  the  pier-arches  on  the  north  side, 
including  the  Tau-cross  or  St.  Anthony's  crutch,  noted  in  Leathley 
church.  In  the  east  window  are  the  arms  with  quarterings,  of 
Percy,  Earl  of  Northumberland,  and  Clifford,  Earl  of  Cumberland, 
who  as  we  have  seen,  were  anciently  superior  lords  of  Weston  and 
Askwith.  On  the  north  side  is  a  two-light  window  bearing  two  shields, 
(i)  the  fess  dancette,  of  Vavasour,  and  (2)  the  three  owls  on  a  bend, 
of  Savile;  Sir  Mauger  Vavasour  having  married  temp.  Eliz.  Joan  or 
Jane,  daughter  of  John  Savile,  Esq.,  of  Stanley,  and  widow  .of  Sir 
James  Metcalfe,  Kt,  of  Nappa  Hall,  who  died  in  1580.  On  the  south 
wall  of  the  chancel  is  a  memorial  inscribed  in  Latin  to  John  Blencow, 
arm.,  eldest  son  of  Henry  Blencow,  of  Blencow,  Co.  Cumb.,  who  died 
in  1630;  also  to  Anna,  second  wife  of  Wm.  Vavasour,  Esq.,  who 
died  in  1645,  and  to  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Henry  Thompson,  gent.,  of 
Doncaster,  who  died  in  1651.  I  have  already  mentioned  the 
beautiful  memorial  windows  &c.  to  the  Dawsons,  and  there  are 
besides  tablets  to  other  members  of  the  families  of  Vavasour  and 
Carter.  There  is  also  a  neat  memorial  brass  to  Mrs.  Susan  Spence, 
wife  of  the  late  Dr.  Spence  and  daughter  of  Wm.  Elmsall  Carter,  Esq., 
of  Weston  Manor,  who  died  in  1893.  She  was  coheiress  with  Mrs. 
Dawson  of  the  manor  of  Weston. 

*  Mr.  J.  W.  Clay  F.S.A.,  has  kindly  referred  me  to  Papworth's  Armorials,  where 
this  coat  is  ascribed  to  John  Vavasour,  Seal,  Harl.  MSS.,  1178,  fo.  117. 


,r,7 

In  IJ.M  the  church  became  the  property  of  the  See  of  York,  by 
gift  of  Hugh  de  I.elav  or  I.eathley  (see  page  120),  who  granted  it  for 
the  purpose  of  augmenting  the  lights  in  York  Minster.*  After  the 
battle  of  r.annockburn  in  1314,  the  Scots  devastated  a  great  part  of 
\Vharfedale,  and  Weston  suffered  sadly,  the  Archbishop  of  York  in 
his  returns  to  the  king,  made  in  13 i  8,  stated  that  the  vicarage  of 
\\Vston  would  only  support  a  single  goat-herd. t  The  Registers  of 
Archbishop  Greenfield  shew  that  a  payment  of  100  marks  was  made 
for  the  ransom  of  a  John  de  Weston,  chamberlain  to  the  king  in 
Scotland,  who  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  Scots  in  1313.  Likewise  a 
sum  of  ^20  was  paid  for  the  ransom  of  Sir  Simon  Ward,  of  Guiseley, 
in  1314.  Many  Wharfedale  men  doubtless  took  part  in  the  great 
battle  of  Bannock  burn. 

The  Dean  and  Chapter  of  York  retained  the  presentation  of  the 
living  of  Weston  till  the  Reformation,  when  the  Rev.  Marten 
Wardeman  was  vicar.  He  is  described  in  the  Certificates  of 
Chantries  as  "meanly  learned,"  yet  of  "honest  conversacion  and 
finalities,"  and  besides  being  vicar  of  Weston,  was  a  chantry-priest  of 
"St.  Stephen's"  in  the  Metropolitan  Church  at  York.  In  1548  the 
parsonage  of  Weston  was  declared  to  be  of  the  yearly  value  of 
£6  i3s.  4d..  and  was  then  in  the  tenure  of  Marmaduke  Vavisor. 
P>y  charter  of  King  Edward  VI.  the  tithes  of  Weston  were  soon 
afterwards  given  to  the  governors  of  the  Free  School  of  Sedbergh,  and 
by  lease  dated  August  22nd,  1561,  were  granted  to  William  Bainton 
of  Myddelton,  in  the  parish  of  Ilkley,  the  yearly  rent  being 
£6  i3s.  2cl4  The  next  lease  was  to  William  Vavisour,  of  Burlowe 
[Burley],  at  a  rent  of  ^7  ios.,  and  in  1662  there  was  a  renewal  of 
the  lease  to  William  Vavasour.  In  the  time  of  Walter  Vavasour,  of 
Weston  (died  1780)  they  were  exchanged  for  some  lands  at  Deepdale 
Head  (Dent)  and  ^63  was  said  to  be  the  value  of  the  tithes,  and 
;£86  the  clear  yearly  rent  of  the  Dent  lands.  The  register  of 
Weston  church  begins  with  the  year  1677. 

The  country  around  Weston  and  Ask  with  is,  as  I  have  said, 
exceedingly  pleasant.  It  is  sufficiently  high  and  open  to  command 
fine  views  of  the  valley,  yet  protected  by  the  northern  range  of  hills 
which  bounds  the  old  Forest  of  Knaresborough,  it  lies  warm  and 
sheltered  on  the  well-sunned  slopes,  and  almost  every  house  has  a 
large  garden  or  orchard.  The  fields  around  are  bright  in  Spring- 
time with  creamy  cowslips  and  primroses,  and  in  the  lanes  grow  in 
plenty  the  fragrant  sweet-violet,  and  other  attractive  or  rare  wild- 
flowers.  At  one  time,  and  that  not  very  long  ago,  hardly  a  slated 

*  See  Archbishop  Gray's  Register,  pp.  142-3. 

f  Historical  Papers  from  Northern  Registers,  p.  280. 

%  A  photographic  reproduction  of  the  original  charter  is  in  Mr.  Bernard  Wilson's 
Sedbergli  School  Rtgistrt  (1X95)  a  most  excellent  volume  and  a  pattern  that  might  with 
advantage-  be  imitated  by  other  public  schools. 


i68 

house  was  to  be  seen  here;  all  the  roofs  being  of  thatch  and  very 
old.  Some  new  building  has  been  going  of  late  years  in  the 
neighbourhood,  which  is  now  beginning  to  wear  a  more  modern 
aspect. 

From  the  evidences  of  antiquity  which  I  have  adduced  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Otley,  the  upper  parts  of  Askwith  are  just  the  places 
where  one  might  expect  to  find  traces  of  early  occupation.  On  the 
Pateley  Bridge  road,  about  half-a-mile  out  of  Askwith,  is  an  ancient 
thatched  farmstead  (now  in  ruins),  known  from  time  immemorial  as 
Win  or  Whin  Castle.  But  the  only  thing  that  can  be  said  in  favor  of 
any  assumption  of  prehistoric  belonging,  is  the  fine,  commanding  site, 
occupying  as  it  does  a  high  level  plateau,  protected  on  the  west  by  a 
deep,  wooded  gill,  while  behind  to  the  north  rise  the  dark  moors. 
No  tradition  that  I  can  hear  of  attaches  to  the  place,  nor  are  there 
any  indications  of  ramparts  or  enclosures,  which  may,  however,  have 
been  long  ago  eradicated  by  cultivation.  While  Scales  House,  the 
next  farm  to  the  west,  has  had  a  certain  existence  for  at  least  five 
centuries — one,  Isolda  de  Scales  appearing  in  the  Poll  Tax  of  Askwith 
for  A.D.  1379, — and  two  families  of  Skalwra  ah  Schalwra  in  that  of 
Ilkley  at  the  same  time,  there  is  no  record  of  any  house  at  Win  Castle 
before  the  present  farm-building  was  erected  there,  probably  in  the 
1 6th  century.  This  seems  to  show  that  the  site  was  already  known 
as  Win  Castle  before  the  house  was  built  and  the  land  taken  in  from 
the  moor.  Part  of  the  moor  was  enclosed  by  Act  obtained  in  1778. 

An  amusing  circumstance  connected  with  this  small  homestead 
was  related  to  me  by  the  late  aged  tenant  of  the  farm,  Hugh  England, 
who  lived  there  twelve  years.  Regularly,  he  says,  and  sometimes 
day  after  day,  he  was  in  the  habit  of  receiving  communications  from 
promoters  of  public  companies,  circulars  and  documents  of  more  or 
less  importance,  and  a  host  of  such  other  applications  as  the  owners 
of  great  houses  are  accustomed  to  be  hampered  with.  These  came  in 
such  numbers  that  he  might,  if  so  disposed,  have  papered  the  few 
walls  of  his  ancient  dwelling  over  and  over  again.  Of  course  it  was 
plain  to  see  that  the  senders  had  mistaken  "Win  Castle"  to  be  some 
lordly  residence,  instead  of  the  humble,  thatched  tenement  it  actually 
appears. 

On  the  edge  of  Weston  Moor,  to  the  east  of  Whin  Castle,  is  the 
old  Forest  lodge  of  Dog  Park  (recently  corrupted  into  Dob  Park),  a 
1 7th  century  home  of  a  branch  of  the  Vavasours  of  Weston.  There 
is  a  tradition  that  it  was  shelled  during  the  Civil  War  by  the 
soldiers  of  Cromwell,  and  before  the  owners  had  time  to  get  all  their 
goods  away.  Some  old  pewter  plates  were  long  afterwards  turned  up 
in  the  land  adjoining  and  are  now  at  Weston  Hall.  The  "dog-courts" 
(so-called)  of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster  continued  to  be  held  at  the  old 
lodge  long  after  its  partial  destruction,  and  on  one  of  the  windows 


169 

were  two  shields  hearing  three  quoits,  the  arms  of  Lancaster.  The 
lodge  has  evidently  consisted  of  four  stories,  turreted. 

. \sk\vith,  as  a  village,  owes  its  origin,  no  doubt,  to  the  Teutonic 
settlers,  and  whether  it  was  actually  settled  before  we  have  no  certain 
knowledge.*  The  name  can  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  Gaelic  asc, 
an  adder,  a  snake,  but  must  be  compounded  from  the  Teut.  (esc,  an 
ash-tree  and  i^idr  or  vitu,  a  wood  ;  the  ash  being  the  most  venerated 
of  trees  in  the  old  Scandinavian  mythology.!  In  Domesday  we  find 
the  name  written  Ascuid  and  Ascvid,  where  were  two  carucates  of 
land  held  by  Gospatric  before  the  Conquest  and  where  one  plough 
may  be,  then  worth  2os.,  now  (1086),  IDS.  Gospatric  was  permitted 
to  retain  these  two  carucates,  and  he  employed  four  villeins  to  work 
them  with  one  plough  ;  that  is  by  the  more  profitable  system  of  a 
three-year  rotation  of  crops,  one  third  of  the  arable  or  sixty  acres  in 
each  full  carucate  alternately  lying  fallow,  and  120  acres  annually 
producing  crops.  The  Norman  Crusader,  William  de  Perci,  had  also 
three  carucates  of  land  here,  which  had  been  in  three  manors,  held 
respectively  by  Ulchil,  Gamel,  and  Bernulf;  likewise  Berenger  de 
Todeni  had  one  carucate,  taken  from  Gamel.  The  Percy  lands  had 
been  worked  by  two  ploughs,  and  continued  to  be  so  cultivated  by 
four  villeins ,  these  several  manors  being  apparently  cultivated  on 
both  the  two-field  and  three-field  systems. 

In  1276  an  inquisition  was  made  before  the  sheriff  and 
escheator  of  Yorkshire  by  Alexander  de  Kirkby,  Richard  atte  Becke 
of  Askewyth,J  John,  son  of  Thurstan  de  Denton,  Walter,  son  of 
William  of  the  same,  and  others,  who  stated  upon  oath  that  Mauger, 
son  of  Mauger  le  Vavasour,  then  aged  30  years  or  more,  is  next  heir 
of  Joan,  daughter  of  William  de  Dufton,  and  the  said  Mauger  le 
Vavasour  was  possessed  at  this  time  of  the  manor  of  Denton  and  a 
moiety  of  the  manor  of  Askwith,  the  former  held  of  the  Archbishop 
of  York,  and  the  latter  of  John,  son  and  heir  of  Henry  de  Percy. §  In 
1284-5  Patrick  de  Westwyk  held  a  third  part  of  Askwith  (being  old 
Gospatric's  share)  for  one-eighth  part  of  a  knight's  fee  of  John  de 
Vescy,  whose  patrimony  afterwards  descended,  as  previously  related, 
by  marriage  to  the  Cliffords.  The  Percy  share  at  the  same  time  was 
held  by  the  above  Mauger  le  Vavasour  for  a  fourth  part  of  a 
knight's  fee.  In  1291  Adam  de  Askwith  appears  as  witness  to  a 
deed  of  conveyance  of  the  manor  and  lands  at  Askwith  to  the  same 
Mauger  le  Vavasour,  and  this  Adam  is  evidently  the  same"  who 

*  Dr.  Whitaker  derives  the  name  from  akes  (oaks)  and  with  or  ivath,  a  ford,  which 
I  think  no  present-day  etymologist  will  accept. 

t  The  form  of  the  foliage  of  the  ash  approximating  to  the  primeval  feather-pattern 
of  the  Orient,  symbolical  of  the  Tree  of  Life,  may  possibly  have  originated  the  same 
idea  in  respect  to  the  ash-tree  among  the  northerns. 

£  Johannes  atte  Bek  of  Askwith  appears  in  the  Poll  Tax  of  1379. 

§  Yorksh.  Inquisit.  Y.A.Jl.  (Record  Ser.)  p.  174. 


170 

was  living  at  Westwick,  near  Borough  bridge  ca.  1300,  and  to  whom 
the  above  Peter  de  Westwyk  bore  some  relationship.* 

Subsequently,  as  appears  by  fines  dated  1543  and  1547,  the 
whole  manor  came  into  the  possession  of  the  Fairfaxes  of  Denton, 
and  was  by  them  sold  in  1716  to  James  Ibbetson,  a  merchant  of 
Leeds,  whose  successors  about  ten  years  ago  made  an  exchange  of 
part  of  the  manorial  estate  with  Colonel  Dawson,  of  Weston  Hall. 

The  ancient  family  of  Askwith  take  their  name  from  this  place, 
but  they  have  long  ago  dispersed.  The  name  does  not  occur 
amongst  the  tenants  of  Askwith  in  1379,  though  in  the  Stockeld 
deeds  for  8th  Edward  II.  (1314)  there  is  a  Roger  de  Askewith 
obtaining  from  Richard,  son  of  Alan,  of  Stockeld,  a  quit-claim  of 
the  manor  of  Lynton  in  Wetherby.f  Of  this  family  was  undoubtedly 
the  celebrated  historian  and  astrologer  John  Eschuid,  who  flourished 
in  the  time  of  Edward  III.,  and  whose  comprehensive  work  on 
11  Judicial  Astrology,"  first  printed  at  Venice  in  1489,  at  one  time 
obtained  very  wide  recognition.  The  Askwiths  were  for  generations 
in  the  service  of  Fountains  Abbey,  and  one  of  the  family  was  sheriff 
of  York  city  in  1593,  and  another,  Caleb  Askwith,  was  mayor  of  Leeds 
in  1698.  He  died  in  1715-16.  See  Dugdale's  Visitation  of  York. 

The  Kendalls  were  also  living  in  the  neighbourhood  before  the 
days  of  parish  registers,  and  still  reside  here.  It  may  be  noted  in 
reference  to  the  above  date  1314  (the  year  of  Bannockburn)  one 
Edmond  de  Kendale  was  then  in  Scotland,  having  previously,  as 
appears  from  Scottish  State  Papers,  made  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy 
Land.  In  later  times  we  find  some  of  the  family  had  joined  the  local 
Society  of  Friends,  who  in  spite  of  their  sufferings  (in  common  with 
other  Nonconformist  bodies)  during  the  era  of  religious  persecution, 
continued  to  be  upheld  with  much  favour  at  Askwith.  They  had  a 
small  Meeting  House  in  Askwith,  afterwards  taken  over  by  the 
Primitive  Methodists,  who,  however,  abandoned  it  about  twenty  years 
ago.  The  chapel  is  now  in  ruins,  and  the  grave-mounds  of  the  old 
Quaker  burial-ground  adjoining  are  now  so  much  sunk  as  to  be 
scarcely  discernible  above  the  surrounding  greensward.  The 
Wesleyans  are  the  only  dissenting  body  here  now  and  they  have 
erected  a  neat  chapel. 

Formerly  there  were  two  inns  in  the  village,  the  Black  Horse 
and  the  Fox  (at  the  east  end  of  the  village),  but  the  latter,  whose  sign 
about  1850  was  changed  to  the  Ibbetson  Arms,  was  closed  some  little 

*  The  above  Mauger  le  Vavasour  held  lands  in  Elslack  at  this  time,  a  fact,  I  think, 
hitherto  unrecorded.  Among  the  archives  at  Bolton  Abbey  is  a  deed  of  Malger 
Vavasour  granting  to  Robert  Vavasour,  his  son,  and  the  heirs  of  his  body  [he  is  not 
mentioned  in  the  pedigrees]  twelve  bovates  of  land  in  the  vill  of  Helslac  for  his  homage 
and  service.  To  hold  quit  of  all  service,  only  doing  foreign  service  as  much  as  belongs 
to  twelve  bovates  of  land  &c.  Test.  John,  Prior  of  Bolton  (1275-1330),  Robert 
Vavasour,  &c. 

t  Yorkshire  County  Mag.  I,  270, 


after  it  came  into  possession  of  the  present  owner,  Col.  Dawson. 
Tin-  village  and  locality  are  much  frequented  by  visitors  in  the 
summer  season.  The  highroad  from  Otley  and  Farnley  to  Ilkley 
passes  through  the  village,  and  there  is  also  a  branch  highway  from 
it  through  Washburndale  to  Pateley  Bridge.  The  old  village  Feast 
(held  in  July)  is  now  practically  a  thing  of  the  past,  but  twent\ 
ago  the  event  was  anticipated  with  no  inconsiderable  preparations,  and 
brought  with  it  a  throng  of  pleasure-seekers  from  many  miles  around. 
There  were  flat-races  and  other  games  for  which  prizes  were  offered, 
whilst  a  horse-race  or  two  was  usually  run  on  the  highroad  between 
the  village  and  Weston. 


CHAPTER    XII. 


DF.NTON    AND   THE    FAIRFAXES. 

Meaning-     of     Denton-  -St.      Helen's     Gill    -Wild     plants,     £c.     Scales    Gill     Charter 
mentioning'  ancient  boundaries — Denton,  an  ancient  centre  ot   the  clothing  trade 
The  Fairfax  family — Their  extraordinary  talents — Distinguished  visitors  at  Demon 
— Ferdinando,  Lord  Fairfax —Thomas,  Lord  Fairfax,  the  Parliamentary  General 
Sale  of  Denton  to  the  Ibbotsons — Denton  Hall  — Old-time  life  at  the  hall     The  old 
chapel — The  present  church — Old  customs. 

CONTINENTAL  newspaper  that  recently  came  under 
my  notice  defined  an  "island"  as  "a  piece  of  land 
entirely  surrounded  by  Englishmen."  Now,  Denton 
seems  to  have  been  a  kind  of  island  or  tract  isolated 
from  its  parent  parish  of  Otley,  originally  occupied  by 
Celts  and  afterwards  surrounded  by  Saxons,  who  again  were 
encompassed  and  subsequently  yielded  it  to  the  piratical  Danes. 
But  whether  it  was  actually  named  by  Saxon  or  Dane  is  uncertain. 
The  village  itself  is  at  no  great  distance  from  the  deep,  wooded  glen 
known  in  the  higher  part  as  Scales  Gill,  and  lower  down  as  St. 
Helen's  Gill  and  Hundwith  Gill  respectively,  and  this  may  be  the 
A-S.  dene  which  has  given  the  place  its  name.  Or  it  may  be  the 
town  of  the  Dane,  just  as  Denmark  is  the  mark  or  boundary  of  the 
Dane.  Scales  Gill  is  evidently  so-called  from  the  presence  of  ancient 
huts  or  shealings,  as  the  Scand.  skali  implies.*  St.  Helen's  Gill  and 
the  Holy  Well  close  by,  have  been  named,  (the  latter  no  doubt  at 
some  remote  period),  after  the  mother  of  Constantine,  the  Roman 
Christian  emperor.  The  fact  is  of  some  importance,  already  dealt 
with  in  connection  with  the  early  adoption  of  Christianity  in 
the  capital  town  of  Otley,  to  which  Denton  originally  belonged. 
Hundwith  Gill  is  in  Anglo-Saxon  literally  dog-wood,  and  may  be  the 
Cornus  sanguinea  of  the  botanist,  just  as  the  A-S.  hund-tunge  is  the 
botanical  hound's-tongue. 

These  historic  and  picturesque  gills  are  the  homes  of  a  great 
variety  of  plants  and  flowers,  as  they  are  also  of  wild  birds.  Thrushes, 
wagtails,  and  dippers  are  resident  here  all  the  year  round,  while  in 
summer-time  one  may  occasionally  get  a  sight  or  hear  the  delicious 
notes  of  the  three  warblers,  the  willow-warbler,  the  wood-warbler, 
and  the  sedge-warbler  (the  latter  often  mistaken  for  the  nightingale). 
Mr.  R.  B.  Walker,  of  Denton,  states  that  a  year  or  two  ago  he  noted 
that  rare  and  stealthy  migrant,  the  grasshopper-warbler,  which  was 

*  See  my  Romantic  Richmond  shire,  p.  363. 


apparently  breeding  at  Denton  Park.  It  is  rarely  seen  on  the  wing, 
but  skulks  and  runs  about  the  underwood  with  wings  half  open  in 
tin-  manner  of  a  sandpiper.  I  do  not  know  whether  the  bustard  has 
c\vr  been  recorded  for  this  locality,  but  it  was  once  a  common 
resident  in  these  western  dales.  Among  the  Denton  householders 
in  1379  appears  the  unusual  name  of  Robert  Bustardbank,  but 
whether  his  patronym  was  taken  from  one  of  the  homesteads  on  the 
gill-bank  at  Denton  it  is  now  impossible  to  say. 

I  have  just  spoken  of  the  old  Scandinavian  housesteads  near 
Scales  Gill,  and  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  descendants  of  the 
original  settlers  bore  the  old  family  names  long  after  the  Conquest. 
Among  the  ancient  documents  at  Weston  Hall  I  have  noted  the 
following  early  (undated)  charter: 

KNOW  all  to  whom  these  presents  shall  come  that  I,  Malger  Vavasor,  have  granted 
and  conceded,  and  by  this  my  present  charter  confirm  to  Sywarde  de  Scales,  or  to  him 
whom  he  shall  assign,  the  messuage  in  which  he  dwells  and  the  whole  land  and  meadow 
within  his  enclosure,  to  wit,  from  the  stream  which  runs  towards  his  house  as  far  as  the 
stone  which  is  called  Ribstonn,  in  breadth  and  in  length  from  Scalecroft  as  far  as  two 
stones  which  lie  at  the  head  of  the  stream  and  the  culture  which  lies  between  Witebec 
and  auenamker  in  breadth  and  in  length  from  the  essart  of  I'll"  to  the  land  of  Adam  the 
carpenter.  To  have  and  to  hold  of  me  and  my  heirs  in  fee  and  free  inheritance  quietly 
and  honorably  with  free  common  and  with  all  liberties  and  easements  in  wood  and  in 
plain,  in  ways  and  paths,  in  moors  and  waters,  in  meadows  and  pastures  and  in  turberies, 
and  in  all  other  places  to  the  said  land  belonging.  Rendering  thence  annually  in  rent 
18  pence,  namely  9  pence  at  IVntecost  and  9  pence  at  the  (east  of  St.  Martin  for  all 
services  and  customary  dues  to  the  said  land  belonging.  And  this  grant  and 
confirmation  I  make  to  the  said  Sywarde  or  to  his  assigns  for  his  homage  and  service. 
And  I  the  aforesaid  Malger  Vavasor  and  my  heirs  will  warrant  against  all  men  the 
aforesaid  lands  and  messuage  with  appurtenances  and  all  liberties  and  easements  thereto 
belonging.  These  being  witnesses,  Hugh  de  Halton  (?),  Galfr  Maunsel,  Hugh  fil' 
Hugh,  Isaac  de  Timbil,  Ro'  fil'  Ulf,  Adam  fil  Anthe,  Hel'  de  Champe',  Romanno  the 
clerk,  Ric  de  Kigleswic,  Joh'  de  Pottona,  Alan  de  Denton,  Reginald  his  brother,  and 
many  others. 

Denton  as  I  have  before  explained,  was  originally  given  by 
Athelstan  to  the  See  of  York.  It  was  subfeud  at  an  early  date  to 
the  Vavasours  (see  WESTON)  and  in  1284  Maugerus  le  Vavasur  held 
the  town  for  a  fourth  part  of  a  knight's  fee  of  the  Archbishops  of 
York,  who  continued  lords  paramount*  In  1379,  according  to  the 
poll-tax  returns,  one  Adam  Wayte  appears  to  have  been  then  farming 
the  manor,  at  which  time  Denton  had  a  more  than  ordinary 
reputation  for  clothes-making  and  drapery  goods.  Doubtless  in  the 
old  time  many  a  monk  from  the  monasteries  at  Bolton  and  Arthington, 
and  many  a  stout-hearted  layman  from  surrounding  places  might 
have  been  seen  entering  the  village,  staff  in  hand,  or  mounted  with 
yew-bow  on  his  "dapple-grey,"  intent  on  exchanging  his  worn  and 
seedy  habit  for  a  brand-new  "rig-out."  Robert  of  the  Wood  was  a 
weaver  in  the  village,  Richard  of  Colne,  a  tailor,  had  evidently 

*  See  Drake's  Ebora£untt  p.  625. 


'74 

removed  from  that  town  and  had  married  and  settled  at  Denton 
where  work  was  good,  as  appears  by  his  assessment,  although  there 
was  another  tailor  then  in  the  village.  Then  again  there  was  a 
wealthy  merchant-draper,  a  man  of  some  position,  who  no  doubt 
purchased  largely  from  the  Otley  manufacturers,  and  who  is  assessed 
at  2S.,  while  every  other  of  the  twenty-two  householders  of  Denton 
are  taxed  at  4d.  and  6d.  each,  except  squire-farmer  Wayte,  who  pays 
i2d.  There  was  then  a  smithy  in  the  village,  too,  but  the  place 
really  stood  largely  by  clothing. 

But  the  fame  of  Denton  lies  chiefly  in  its  alliance  with  the  great 
family  of  Fairfax,  "whose  name  in  arms  through  Europe  rings";  a 
house,  declares  Canon  Raine,  "that  not  alone  in  military  achievement 
but  for  learning  also,  has  no  peer  among  the  families  of  Yorkshire." 
Of  ancient  and  honorable  descent  its  members  have  been  distinguished 
alike  in  commerce,  law,  literature,  politics  and  arms.  Possessed  of 
ample  fortunes,  and  living  for  the  most  part  in  an  era  of  almost 
constant  internecine  strife  and  unrest,  they  have  been  called  into 
responsible  offices,  and  their  skill  and  judgement  have  been  sought 
during  some  of  the  most  difficult  crises  in  English  public  affairs. 
Well  do  such  men  deserve  the  remembrance  of  posterity. 

The  first  of  the  Yorkshire  Fairfaxes  of  whom  we  have  any  record 
was  William,  farmer  of  the  Royal  Mint  in  York,  in  the  time  of  King 
John,  whom  Robert  Davies  says  "dwelt  in  the  street  of  Nether 
Ousegate,  in  the  parish  of  St.  Michael  at  Ouse  Bridge  end."*  He  it 
was  who  founded  the  family  at  Walton,  near  Thorp  Arch,  and  Steeton 
in  the  Ainsty,  at  which  latter  place  Sir  Guy  Fairfax  built  a  castle, 
which  continued  the  home  of  his  descendants  for  several  centuries,  until 
they  removed  to  Newton  Kyme.  This  Sir  Guy  Fairfax  was  one  of 
the  Commissioners  of  Array  for  the  West  Riding  in  1455,  and  in  1460 
became  a  Serjeant  of  Law  at  Gray's  Inn.  In  1468  he  was  King's 
Serjeant,  and  a  few  years  later  was  elevated  to  the  position  of  Judge 
of  the  Court  of  King's  Bench,  and  eventually  he  became  Chief 
Justice,  and  his  son  and  heir  Sir  William  Fairfax,  was  Chief  Justice 
of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  early  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII. 
He  married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Sir  Robert  Manners,  Kt,  (ancestor 
of  the  Duke  of  Rutland),  and  his  eldest  son  and  heir,  also  named  Sir 
William,  was  the  first  of  the  Fairfaxes  connected  with  Denton  in 
Wharfedale,  which  he  acquired  in  a  somewhat  romantic  fashion. 
Becoming  enamoured  of  a  youthful  and  (tradition  says)  beautiful  nun 
at  the  monastery  of  Appleton,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  his  fathers 
estates,  he  eventually  succeeded  in  winning  her  away,  and  they  were 
married  at  Bolton  Percy  in  1515.  Her  name  was  Isabel  Thwaites, 
and  she  was  not  only  possessed  of  an  attractive  demeanour  but  had 
also  a  rare  wealth.  Her  father,  Thomas  Thwaites,  made  her  his 

*   Vide  Walks  through  the  city  of  York, 


heiress — being  his  only  child, — and  by  this  fortunate  marriage  Sir 
William  Fairfax  obtained  the  manors  of  Thwaites,  Denton,  Askwith, 
and  Davy-gate  in  the  city  of  York,  and  when  the  monasteries  fell  he 
came  into  possession  of  Nun  Appleton  and  Bolton  Percy. 

The  Thwaites  family,  who  held  Denton,  had  been  long  resident 
in  this  part  of  Yorkshire.  They  were  originally  lardiners  to  William 
the  Conqueror,  an  office  which  continued  hereditary  in  the  family  for 
many  generations  afterwards,  and  of  whom  some  account  is  given  in 
Drake's  Eboracum  (1736).  Thwaites  in  the  parish  of  Keighley  was 
anciently  their  property,  which  afterwards  came  to  the  Fairfaxes. 
In  1316  John  de  Thwaites  was  one  of  the  four  joint  lords  of  the 
several  manors  of  Keighley.  How  they  became  possessed  of  Denton 
is  not  very  clear,  but  probably  it  descended  through  the  Brocas  family 
some  time  near  the  end  of  the  i5th  century,  when  Elizabeth,  daughter 
of  Henry  Thwaites,  married  John  Vavasour  of  Weston,  who  died  in 
1482.  The  family  had,  however,  been  living  at  Denton  before  this 
time.  There  was  a  John  Thwaites,  of  Denton,  temp.  Henry  VI.,  a 
lawyer  of  considerable  repute,  who  was  legal  adviser  to  Thomas,  Lord 
Clifford,  when  a  minor  and  patron  of  Bolton  Priory.  His  name 
appears  in  the  Compotus  for  1447  as  first  counsellor  to  that  lord — 
Sir  Barnard  Brocas,  who  married  Agnes  Vavasour,  and  from  whom 
she  was  divorced,  but  had  issue,  Sir  Barnard  Brocas,  who  was 
attainted  and  executed  in  1399,  was  lord  of  Denton.  William  Brocas 
grandson  of  Agnes  Vavasour,  made  over  his  estate  at  Denton,  by 
deed  of  feofment,  to  William  Gascoigne,  John  Thwaites,  and  others, 
from  whom  John  Vavasour,  of  Weston  is  stated  to  have  recovered 
the  same.*  The  above  John  Thwaites,  who  died  at  Denton  in  1469, 
married  Isabella,  sister  of  Sir  Wm.  Ryther,  of  Harewood  Castle,  Kt., 
and  was  buried  by  the  side  of  his  wife  in  the  chancel  of  Harewood 
Church. 

In  1543  a  fine  was  entered  between  Richard  Standish  and 
William  King,  plaintiffs,  and  the  above  Sir  William  Fairfax  and 
Isabel,  his  wife,  deforciants,  for  the  manors  of  Denton,  Thwaites, 
Askwith,  Bingley  and  Keighley  (the  estate  at  Thwaites),  and 
Newsome,  and  thirty  messuages,  thirty  cottages  and  a  watermill 
in  the  same,  and  in  Rawdon,  which  after  the  deaths  of  the  said 
William  and  Isabel,  remain  to  Guy  Fairfax,  their  son  and  heir,  and 
his  lawful  male  issue,  and  failing  such,  on  his  death,  to  the  male 
issue  of  William  and  Isabel,  and  failing  such  to  their  female  issue, 
and  failing  such  to  the  right  heirs  of  Isabel.  Sir  William's  eldest 

*  Drake  says  that  Wolsington  alias  Weston,  was  in  the  reign  of  Edward  III  the 
property  of  Sir  Bernard  Brocas,  Kt.,  "which  my  author  thinks  he  had  by  marriage  of 
the  daughter  and  heir  of  Sir  Manger  Vavasour,  which  Sir  Mauger  was  owner  thereof 
by  the  grant  ot  Robert  Aiou,  who  by  deed  of  purchase  held  it  by  an  annual  rent  to  the 
King  of  ud.,  called  alba-firma,  or  bla  tick-farm,  and  to  appear  at  the  wapentake  held  at 
Ainsty-cross."  Eboracum  (1736)  p.  389. 


i76 

son,  Guy,  having  become  mentally  afflicted,  his  second  son,  Thomas 
succeeded  to  Denton  &c.,  and  his  fifth  and  youngest  son,  Gabriel, 
to  the  estates  at  Steeton,  Bilbrough,  and  Bolton  Percy,  where  this 
branch  of  the  family  still  resides.  In  1547-8  another  fine  was  made 
between  Wm.  Fairfax  Esq.,  Thos.  Oglethorpe  Esq.  and  Michael 
Wandesworth  gent,  plaintiffs,  and  Sir  Wm.  Fairfax  Kt.  and  Guy 
Fairfax,  his  son  and  heir  apparent,  deforciants,  for  the  manors  of 
Denton,  Askwith,  Thwaites,  Newsome,  Keighley,  Bingley,  Tolston, 
Clifford,  and  Badsworth,  and  120  messuages,  30  cottages,  and  a 
watermill,  with  lands  in  the  same. 


FERDINANDO,    LORD   FAIRFAX. 

Sir  William  Fairfax  died  at  Denton  in  1557-8,  and  his  son  and 
successor,  the  above  Sir  Thomas,  was  bom  in  1521,  and  died  in 
1599,  and  was  buried  at  Denton.  A  memorial  of  him  is  in  Otley 
Church.  He  had  been  trained  in  the  army  and  was  with  Charles, 
Duke  of  Bourbon,  at  the  sacking  of  Rome,  an  event  which  led  to 
the  imprisonment  of  the  Pope  in  1527.  He  had  a  family  of  seven 
sons  and  five  daughters,  of  whom  Edward  Fairfax,  the  poet,  linguist 
and  translator  of  Tasso,  was  one,  and  who  at  one  time  resided  in 
a  house  called  The  Stocks,  near  the  Leeds  Parish  Church,  and 


177 

afterwards  .it  Newhall  near  Fewston.*  Edward's  eldest  brother, 
Thomas,  was  created  Baron  of  Cameron,  in  the  Scottish  peerage, 
in  1627,  after  having  distinguished  himself  in  the  wars  abroad. 
His  inscribed  effigy,  with  that  of  his  wife,  I  have  already  noticed 
in  the  account  of  Otley  Church.  His  brother  Charles,  was  an 
intrepid  soldier  also,  who  took  a  conspicuous  part  in  the  terrible 
siege  of  Ostend,  and  there  received  a  life-scar  in  the  face  by  coming 
in  contact  with  the  smashed  skull  of  a  Marshall  of  France,  who  was 
killed  by  a  canon-ball  whilst  standing  close  beside  him.  These 
Fairfaxes  were  all  accounted  desperate  soldiers,  well  schooled  and 
disciplined  in  all  departments  of  war,  yet  scholars  were  they  too, 
and  none  the  less  adepts  in  the  arts  of  peace.  The  beautiful 
retirement  of  Denton,  with  its  woodland  glades  and  singing-birds, 
must  many  a  time  have  formed  a  delightful  retreat  to  war-spent 
members  of  the  family  after  prolonged  absences  from  the  old 
VVharfedale  home.  The  above  Thomas,  first  Lord  Fairfax,  when 
at  Denton,  enjoyed  the  companionship  of  men  of  learning,  and  many 
a  happy  hour  must  he  have  passed  with  kindred  spirits  in  the 
noted  library  at  Denton,  which  at  that  time  was  one  of  the  best  in 
Yorkshire.f  He  was  the  friend  of  all  the  ripest  scholars,  authors 
and  antiquarians  of  the  time,  including  Roger  Dodsworth  and  Sir 
William  Dugdale.  With  Henry,  Earl  of  Cumberland,  of  Skipton 
Castle,  who  was  something  of  a  poet,  he  and  his  father  were  on 
terms  of  the  greatest  intimacy  before  the  war  broke  out.  Sir  Thomas 
Herbert,  the  famous  traveller  and  courtier,  and  a  relative  of  the 
eminent  poet,  George  Herbert,  was  also  an  occassional  visitor  at 
Denton,  and  in  his  volume  of  travels  in  Africa  and  Asia,  Lord 
Fairfax  wrote  some  complimentary  verses.  Sir  Thomas  Herbert, 
who  was  of  the  Tintern,  in  Monmouthshire,  family,  had  a  house  in 
York,  and  married  (i)  Lucy,  daughter  of  Sir  Walter  Alexander  Kt., 

*  A  long  account  of  him  will  be  found  in  the  Rev.  Thos.  Parkinson's  /Mrs  and 
leaves  of  the  Forest,  pages  105-122.  See  also  Grainge's  History  of  Timble  p.  69,  76. 

f  "To  Thomas,  third  Lord  Fairfax,"  observes  Whitaker,  "we  are  indebted  not  only 
for  the  basis  of  Thoresby's  Museum,  but  what  is  of  more  importance,  for  the  voluminous 
collections  of  Dodsworth,  which  perpetuated  so  many  thousands  of  charters  relating  to 
the  genealogical  and  monastic  antiquities  of  the  northern  counties,  just  transcribed 
under  his  patronage,  [Lord  Fairfax  allowed  him  an  annuity  of  ^40  for  life]  before  tin- 
blowing  up  of  St.  Mary's  Tower  at  York  consigned  the  originals  to  destruction."  Ijiidis 
and  Elmete  (1816)  p.  195.  Lord  Fairfax,  it  has  been  said,  bequeathed  the  whole  of 
Dodsworth's priceless  MSS.,  amounting  to  122  volumes,  to  the  Bodleian  Library,  Oxford, 
together  with  about  40  folio  volumes  of  original  MSS.  which  he  had  collected  from 
various  quarters.  But  in  a  note  by  Byran  Fairfax  to  an  account  of  Kdward  Fairfax  in 
Atterbury's  Correspondence,  it  is  stated  to  have  been  Henry  Fairfax,  Dean  of  Norwich 
(and  son  of  Charles)  who  gave  these  160  volumes  to  the  I'niversity  of  Oxford.  The 
point,  however,  is  of  small  consequence  beside  the  larger  issue  of  Lord  Fairfax's 
sagacity  in  anticipating  the  aspirations  of  the  Ages.  Had  there  been  more  of  his  genius 
in  former  times,  Fnglancl  would  have  been  all  the  richer  and  brighter  in  her  literary 
and  historic  annals  to-day. 


i78 

one  of  the  gentlemen  of  the  King's  Bed-chamber,  and  (2)  Elizabeth, 
daughter  of  Sir  Gervase  Cutler,  Kt.  of  Stainborough,  Co.  York,  by 
his  second  wife,  Lady  Magdaline  Egerton,  a  daughter  of  the  Earl  of. 
Bridgwater.  Two  of  his  letters  written  from  London  in  1631  and 
1633-4  to  Lord  Fairfax  at  Denton,  are  printed  in  the  first  volume 
of  the  Yorkshire  Archceological  journal. 

Three  of  Lord  Fairfax's  sons  were  slain  in  battle  and  his  son 
Ferdinando,  second  Lord  Fairfax,  succeeded  to  Denton.  He  married 
for  his  first  wife,  a  daughter  of  Lord  Sheffield,  President  of  the 
North,  and  became,  as  is  well  known,  leader  of  the  Parliamentary 
forces  during  the  disastrous  wars  with  King  Charles.  He  died  at 
York  in  March,  1647-8,  and  was  buried  at  Bolton  Percy,  where  his 
monument  inscribed  with  gilded  letters  may  be  seen.  His  redoubtable 
son,  the  famous  "Black  Tom,"  the  third  and  great  Lord  Fairfax,  who 
was  born  at  Denton  in  1611,  succeeded  to  the  Wharfedale  patrimony. 
Being  trained  in  his  father's  footsteps  he  became  a  soldier  and 
strategist  of  the  first  rank,  General  of  the  Parliamentary  army,  and 
altogether  one  of  the  most  notable  characters  in  the  whole  range  of 
our  national  history.  I  have  already  on  pages  53  to  55  given  some 
account  of  this  famous  general,  whose  family  motto,  Fare,fac  (say, 
do)  was  singularly  illustrative  of  his  whole  life's  action.  When  he 
spoke  and  acted  it  was  with  earnestness  and  resolve.  Carrying 
with  him  too,  title,  wealth,  and  character,  besides  a  natural  wisdom 
and  rare  valour,  he  was  a  man  indeed  to  be  coveted  by  any  party, 
and  one  in  whom  object  rather  than  self-interest  was  of  most  concern. 
He  possessed  a  singularly  calm  demeanour  being  little  affected  by 
outside  circumstances,  and  in  spite  of  the  Colchester  outrage,  when 
ill-counsels  prevailed,  one  might  say  that  no  man  ever  exercised  such 
coolness  and  restraint  in  hours  of  triumph  as  did  this  Lord  Fairfax. 
As  lord  of  Man  and  the  Isles,  his  noble  feeling  and  devotion  to  literature 
and  religion  were  likewise  equally  conspicuous.  He  set  apart  the 
proceeds  of  the  sequestered  Bishopric  to  the  increase  of  the  incomes 
of  the  inferior  clergy,  and  the  establishment  of  Grammar  Schools  in 
the  four  towns  of  the  Isle  of  Man,  viz. :  Castletown,  Douglas,  Peel, 
and  Ramsey.*  He  wrote  some  "Short  Memorials  of  Himself,"  not 
intended  for  publication,  but  a  false  edition  being  threatened,  they  were 
printed  by  authority  of  Bryan  Fairfax,  Esq.,  in  1699.!  Lord  Fairfax 

*  See  the  Manx  Socy.  Pub.,  vol.  x.  (1868)  p.  62. 

f  See  also  "The  King's  Cabinet  Opened,  or  Certain  Pacquets  of  Secret  Letters  and 
Papers."  Written  with  the  King's  own  hand,  and  taken  in  his  Cabinet  at  Naseby  Field, 
June  141)1  1645,  by  victorious  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax  ;  wherein  are  many  mysteries  of  State, 
tending  to  the  justification  of  that  cause,  for  which  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax  joined  battle 
that  memorable  day,  clearly  laid  open,  together  with  some  annotations  thereupon  (1645). 
Harleian  Miscellany  vol.  v.  (1809).  Sir  Richard  Tangye,  of  Birmingham,  possesses  a 
unique  collection  of  letters  written  by  Cromwell  and  the  Fairfaxes  during  the  War.  At 
the  sale  of  the  library  of  the  Earl  of  Ashburnhani  in  September,  1898,  the  Fairfax  MSS. 
realized  ^415. 


179 

spent  his  la>t  days  at  Xun  Appleton,  where  he  died  Nov.  i2th,  1671 
(Whitaker  says  lie  died  at  Denton),  and  was  buried  in  the  aisle 
adjoining  to  the  south  side  of  Bilbrough  Church.*  He  left  an  only 
daughter  by  his  wife,  Anne,  daughter  of  Lord  Yere,  of  Tilbury,  who 
uas  born  in  1636  and  who  unfortunately  married  George  Villiers,  the 
dissolute  Duke  of  Buckingham.  The  estate  at  Denton,  however,  being 
entailed  on  the  male  line,  descended  to  his  cousin  Henry,  son  of  the 
Rev.  Henry  Fairfax,  rector  of  I.olton  Percy,  and  grandson  of  the  first 


THOMAS,    LORD    FAIRFAX. 

Lord  Fairfax.  This  Henry,  fourth  Baron  Cameron,  (who  was  M.P.  for 
Co.  York  in  1678)  died  at  Denton  in  1693,  aged  86f,  when  he  was 
succeeded  by  Thomas,  the  fifth  lord,  also  M.P.  for  Yorkshire,  who 
died  in  1709,  leaving  Thomas,  his  eldest  son,  who  died  unmarried  in 
Virginia  in  1781,  aged  91,  and  is  buried  in  the  old  church  at 

*  See   Markham's  Life   of  Lord  Fair-fax,   and   Coleridge's    Worthies  of   Yorkshire, 
pages  175  to  224,  and  Fairfax  Correspondence, 

f  It  was   lit-   who  munificently  restored   tin-   cclt-braicd   liorn  of  Ulphus  to  York 
Minxttr  in  1671,  a*  n-conU-d  in  the  inscription  now  upon  it. 


i8o 

Winchester,  Virginia.  Whitaker  is  wrong  respecting  him.  Markham 
says  that  his  mother  was  Catherine,  daughter  and  heiress  of  Thomas, 
Lord  Culpepper,  on  whose  death  she  succeeded  to  Leeds  Castle  in 
Kent,  to  the  proprietary  right  of  the  northern  neck  of  Virginia,  and 
to  an  estate  of  300,000  acres  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley.  Her 
mother  was  Margaret  de  Hesse.  Lady  Fairfax  sold  Denton  and  all 
the  Yorkshire  property  to  pay  off  the  debts  on  her  estates  in  Kent. 
She  did  this  so  recklessly  that  the  price  given  for  Denton  was  covered 
by  the  value  of  the  timber.*  This  was  in  1716,  when  her  husband 
having  been  dead  about  seven  years,  her  son  Thomas,  sixth  Lord 
Fairfax,  was  twenty-five  years  old.  Burke  implies  the  Yorkshire 
property  was  sold  about  the  year  1739,  but  in  a  manuscript  book  in 
vellum  cover,  in  possession  of  the  Rev.  Thos.  Parkinson,  vicar  of 
North  Otterington,  appears  this  contemporary  entry. 

DENTON,  May  the  i8th  1716  A.D. 

MEMORIAL.  My  Lord  ffairfax  sold  his  estate  at  (3)  Denton  and  Askwith,  to  one  James 
Ibbotson  of  Leeds;  and  a  place  near  York  called  Bilborough,  to  sixe  men, — Captain 
ffairfax,  Barnard  Banks,  Nathaniel  Hird,  one  Smithe,  one  Markes,  and  one  Roodman  of 
York.  They  took  possession  on  the  day  and  yeare  above  written. 

This  day  above  written  James  Ibbotson  tooke  possession  and  all  set  there  hands  to 
a  paper  and  paid  sixpence.  All  the  tenants  paid  sixpence,  as  before  mentioned,  to  Mr. 
James  Ibbotson,  of  Leeds,  f 

Robert,  brother  to  Thomas,  sixth  Lord  Fairfax,  succeeded  to  the 
title  and  dignity  but  dying  without  issue  in  1793,  the  direct  male  line 
became  extinct.  Bryan  Fairfax,  however,  who  was  his  heir,  being 
grandson  of  Henry,  next  brother  to  Thomas,  fifth  Lord  Fairfax,  came 
from  Virginia  to  England  in  1793  and  laid  claim  to  the  peerage, 
which  was  allowed  by  the  House  of  Lords  in  1800  ,  and  in  1808,  the 
House  of  Commons  voted  him  ,£20,000  in  compensation  for  his  losses 
in  Virginia.  The  original  family  claim,  I  gather,  was  ^98,000,  but 
this  was  reduced  by  the  Select  Committee  to  ^"60,000,  and  a  dispute 
soon  afterwards  arose  as  to  the  various  interests  in  this  sum,  life  and 
reversionary.  Culpepper  Court  House,  which  gave  its  name  to  a 
battle  in  Virginia  in  the  Civil  War  of  our  time,  was  on  the  Fairfax 
estate.  Bryan  Fairfax  was  a  Whig  and  a  parson  and  a  great  friend 
of  Washington.  He  returned  to  America,  and  married  a  Miss 
Elizabeth  Gary,  by  whom  he  had  several  children.  His  eldest  son, 
Thomas,  succeeded  as  ninth  Lord  Fairfax.  He  was  born  in  1762  and 
died  at  Vaucluse,  in  Virginia,  in  1846,  aged  84.  His  eldest  son, 
Albert  Fairfax,  died  in  1835,  m  tne  life-time  of  his  father,  having 
married  and  left  issue,  his  son,  Charles  Snowden  Fairfax,  became 
tenth  Lord  Fairfax,  and  he  died  in  1869,  without  issue.  His  successor, 
the  eleventh  Lord  Fairfax,  was  his  only  brother,  John  Contee  Fairfax, 
M.D.,  of  Northampton,  Maryland,  U.S.A.,  who  was  born  in  1830  and 

*  See  also  Notes  to  Maude's  Verbeia  (1781). 
t  Lays  and  Leaves  of  the  Forest,  page  189. 


rSi 

married  Mary,  daughter  of  Col.  Edmund  Kirby  of  the  United  States 
Army,  by  whom  he  has  issue  three  daughters. 

On  the  Ibbetsons  coming  into  possession  of  Denton  in  1716 
they  did  much  to  improve  the  estate.  I  have  mentioned  Sir  Henry 
Carr  Ibbetson,  Bart,  as  the  first  President  of  the  Wharfedale 
Agricultural  Society,  and  during  the  best  part  of  his  life-time  in  the 
earlier  years  of  this  century,  Denton  Park  had  a  just  celebrity  for  its 
fine  and  carefully-selected  breed  of  short-horns.  Sir  Henry  was  a  true 
lover  of  the  farm  and  field  and  liked  a  good  animal.  I  have  before 
me  an  old  bill  of  sale  of  cattle  in  1810  belonging  to  Mr.  Chas. 
Colling,  of  Ketton,  near  Darlington,  when  Sir  Henry  bought  a  heifer 
three  years  old,  by  Comet,  for  105  guineas.  At  this  sale,  the  sire, 
Comet,  then  six  years  old  realised  1000  guineas,  and  the  purchasers 
Messrs.  Wetherell, Trotter,  Wright,  and  Charge,  refused  the  magnificent 
offer  of  1600  guineas  for  him  soon  after  the  sale  ! 

By  the  marriage  in  1845  °f  Laura,  daughter  of  Sir  Chas. 
Ibbetson,  Bart.,  with  the  late  Marmaduke  Wyvill,  Esq.,  M.P.,  for 
Richmond,  of  Burton  Constable,  in  the  North  Riding,*  the  Denton 
estate  passed  to  the  Wyvills  (Sir  Chas.  Ibbetson's  two  sons  having 
died  without  issue)  and  is  now  owned  by  Marmaduke  D'Arcy  Wyvill 
Esq.,  M.P.  for  the  Otley  Division,  Co.  York.  Mr.  Wyvill  is  a 
magistrate  of  each  of  the  three  Ridings  of  Yorkshire,  and  a  deputy- 
lieutenant  of  the  North  Riding.  In  1871  he  married  (i)  a  daughter  of 
Mr.  J.  Banner  Price,  of  Kensington,  who  died  in  1895,  an^  (2)  'n 
1898  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  W.  H.  Wilson-Todd,  Esq.,  of  Halnaby 
Hall,  Darlington,  and  Tranby  Park,  Yorkshire. 

Denton  Hall,  the  old  home  of  the  Fairfaxes,  was  accidentally 
destroyed  by  fire,  and  the  present  mansion  is  the  third  house  within 
two  centuries  that  is  known  to  have  been  on  or  near  the  site.  The 
previous  smaller  one  had  been  erected  in  1734,  and  the  present  was 
erected  in  1778,  from  designs  by  John  Carr,  the  celebrated  architect, 
of  York.f  Twice  before  had  the  hall  been  burnt  down  through  the 
carelessness  of  servants,  a  circumstance  which  induced  the  builder  of 
the  present  mansion  to  compose  a  Latin  verse,  which  he  had  affixed 
in  front  of  the  building.  It  may  be  rendered  as  follows  : 

NOR   WRATH    OF  JOVE,    NOR   FIRE,    NOR   SWORD,    I    FERVENT    PRAY, 
MAY   THIS    FAIR   DOME    AGAIN    IN    PROSTRATE    RUINS    LAY. 

The  south  front,  of  the  mansion,  which  is  about  seventy-five  feet  long, 
overlooks  an  extensive  and  well-wooded  park ;  some  of  the  beeches 
being  of  magnificent  growth,  while  clustering  woods  protect  it  from 
the  gales  that  sweep  from  the  northern  moorlands  behind.  Pleasant 
gardens,  with  hot-houses  and  green-houses  are  attached,  which 
contribute  to  make  this  one  of  the  most  attractive  seats  in  Wharfedale. 

*  See  the  author's  RichiHimdshirr,  pages  341-2. 
t  See  the  Yorks,  Anhl.  Jniirl.  iv.,  205-6. 


l82 

It  was  at  Denton  Hall  that  Prince  Rupert  lodged  on  his  way 
from  Lancaster  to  York,  just  before  the  battle  of  Marston  Moor  in 
1644.  There  was  then  in  the  house  a  very  fine  portrait  of  John 
Fairfax,  younger  brother  of  the  then  lord,  and  Whitaker  states  that 
the  Prince  was  so  impressed  with  the  excellence  of  this  painting  that 
he  forbade  any  spoil  to  be  committed  upon  the  house,  an  act  of 
generosity  he  thinks  more  likely  to  be  prompted  by  a  fine  work  of 
art  than  by  respect  for  the  owner  of  Denton.  But  one  is  tempted  to 
question  this  conclusion,  for  the  character  of  Lord  Fairfax  presented 
an  odd  mixture  of  loyalty  and  disunion  towards  the  House  of  Stuart, 
and  Prince  Rupert  seems  never  wholly  to  have  relinquished  the  hope 


DENTON    HALL   A   CENTURY   AGO 

of  his  favor,  which  was  as  we  know  so  strangely  and  emphatically 
manifested  at  the  Restoration. 

In  1667  Denton  was  occupied  by  William  Welby,  who  died  in 
1707,  and  whose  daughter  Mary,  married  Thomas,  son  of  Michael 
Fawkes.  In  the  time  of  the  Fairfaxes  great  state  was  maintained  at 
the  Hall,  and  particular  care  was  always  exercised  respecting  the 
admission  of  strangers,  who  would  appear  to  have  been  very  numerous 
and  to  have  represented  all  classes,  from  the  beggar  to  the  noble. 
A  porter  was  employed  to  attend  to  the  gates,  and  to  keep  them 
locked  after  certain  hours,  he  keeping  charge  of  the  keys.  In  the 
time  of  Lord  Fairfax,  (obit  1640),  whose  effigy  is  in  Otley  Church, 
a  numerous  bevy  of  servants  and  attendants  lived  at  the  Hall, 
including  stewards,  secretaries,  yeomen-of-the-chambers  &c.,  ushers 


pages,  messengers,  butlers,  clerk  of  the  kitchen,  gardeners,  and  other 
functionaries,  reminding  one  almost  of  the  state  routine  and  multifarious 
offices  of  a  large  monastic  establishment.  There  was  a  constant 
stream  of  resident  visitors.  The  chaplain  at  Denton  was  required 
to  say  prayers  at  meal-times,  and  to  see  that  "  one  of  the  chapel- 
bells  be  rung  before  the  prayers  one-quarter  of  an  houre,  att  which 
sumons"  the  victuals  were  to  be  in  readiness  and  the  butler  must 
"  prepair  for  coveringe  but  not  cover."  In  1610  it  is  recorded  there 
was  in  the  house,  among  other  things,  "  i  Great  Church  Bible,  i 
Booke  of  Common  Prayer,  20  Long  Pikes,  and  i  Great  Auncient 
Clocke."  The  pikes  and  prayer-books  remind  one  of  the  olden 
times  when  war  and  religion  generally  ran  hand-in-hand,  as  we  see 
sometimes  represented  on  old  nameless  tombs.  The  present  house 
contains  some  handsome  rooms,  in  which  are  hung  many  notable 
paintings,  and  there  is  also  a  library  of  upwards  of  one  thousand 
volumes.  The  mansion  is  at  present  let  to  John  Wormald  Esq., 
J.P.,  of  Dewsbury,  whose  son,  Lieutenant  Wormald,  has  lately  added 
further  martial  renown  to  the  historic  home  at  Denton.  He  was  in 
the  terrible  charge  of  the  2ist  Lancers  at  the  battle  of  Omdurman  in 
1898,  which  led  to  the  capture  of  Khartoum.  On  narrowly  missing 
a  rifle-shot  from  a  Dervish,  mounted  on  an  Arab  horse,  he  struck 
at  the  man  but  his  sword  bent  in  the  action.  The  Dervish  made 
off;  had  he  turned  round  the  young  English  officer  would  have  lost 
his  life,  as  his  sword  was  almost  useless.  I  may  also  mention  two 
other  Wharfedale  heroes,  Lieut.  Hugh  V.  Fison,  second  son  of  Mr. 
Fison  M.P.,  of  Burley,  and  Private  Harry  Dean,  of  Ilkley,  who  were 
present  at  the  battle  of  Omdurman,  and  whose  lives  were  sacrificed 
during  the  same  campaign.  Their  names  appear  on  the  brass  tablet 
lately  erected  in  Newcastle  Cathedral  by  the  officers  and  men  of 
the  Northumberland  Fusiliers,  to  the  memory  of  their  thirty-four 
comrades  who  died  during  this  war  in  the  Soudan. 

The  old  chapel  at  Denton  stood  near  the  present  mansion  but 
was  taken  down  at  the  rebuilding  in  1778.  It  contained  a  memorial 
of  Sir  Thomas  (pb.  1599)  and  Lady  Fairfax  (ol>.  1595-6),  who  were 
both  interred  in  the  chapel.  The  painted  glass,  elated  1699,  was 
removed  from  the  old  chapel  and  placed  in  the  east  window  of  the 
present  edifice ;  the  glass  being  the  work  of  Henry  Gyles,  of  York,  and 
depicts  David  playing  on  his  harp.  It  bears  also  the  arms  of  Thomas, 
fourth  Lord  Fairfax.  On  the  west  wall  of  the  church  is  a  beautiful 
brass  tablet,  fifteen  inches  by  twenty-four  inches,  on  which  is  recorded 
that  the  church  was  formerly  a  donative,  and  was  given  over  to  the 
See  of  Ripon  by  Marmaduke  Wyvill  and  Laura,  his  wife,  in  1867, 
and  was  dedicated  in  honor  of  St.  Helen  by  William,  Lord  Bishop  of 
the  Diocese  in  1890.  It  reads  as  follows  : — 

St.  Helen,  mother  of  Constantine  the  Great,  was  chosen  as  Patroness  because  of  her 
close  connection  with  the  county  of  York,  and  with  this  neighbourhood  in  particular. 


1 84 

Three  days  have  been  set  apart  in  her  honour  by  the  Church  of  England:  May  3rd 
(the  finding  of  the  Holy  Cross)  August  i8th  (St.  Helen's  Day)  and  September  I4th 
(Holy  Cross  Day). 

The  church  contains  numerous  memorials  of  the  Ibbetson  family, 
the  last  of  whom  to  reside  here  was  Sir  Chas.  Ibbetson,  Bart.,  who 
died  April  Qth,  1839,  aged  sixty.  In  the  churchyard  is  a  stone  from 
the  old  church,  inscribed  to  the  memory  of  Frances,  the  wife  of 
Henry,  Lord  Fairfax,  of  Denton,  and  daughter  of  Sir  Robert  Barwick, 
of  Toulston,  Kt.  She  died  February  i4th,  1683. 

In  the  time  of  the  first  Lord  Fairfax,  who,  as  I  have  shewn, 
lived  in  .  great  state  at  the  Hall,  there  were  many  customs  and 
regulations  appertaining  to  the  manor  which  are  now  obsolete.  No 
one,  for  example,  was  permitted  to  let  a  pig  go  unyoked,  nor  must 
any  dog  run  loose  without  muzzle;  the  latter  regulation  having  been 
repeatedly  enforced  and  withdrawn,  as  it  now  stands.  Formerly  if 
any  pig  was  taken  within  the  hall  demesne  the  owner  was  to  forfeit 
is.  per  pig.  No  one  was  allowed  to  burn  any  ling  on  the  moor 
between  Derneen  Brow,  (now  known  as  Dearncomb,  close  to  the 
parish  boundary  on  the  north-west)  and  P'rseley  Rigge  (now 
Lippersley  Ridge)  on  pain  of  6s.  8d.  forfeit.  No  one  was  allowed  to 
harbour  strangers  or  take  in  lodgers  for  longer  than  a  month,  on  pain 
of  forfeit  of  TOS.  per  month.  Among  the  tenants'  names  in  Queen 
Elizabeth's  days  we  find  many  who  seem  to  have  come  with  the 
Thwaites'  from  the  neighbourhood  of  Keighley,  such  as  Hall,  Milner, 
Braithwait,  Newsom,  &c.  Sixty  years  ago  the  old  blacksmith  at 
Denton,  James  Thackeray,  came  over  the  hill  from  Nidderdale,  and 
was  doubtless  a  connection  of  the  Thackerays  of  the  adjoining 
parish  of  Hampsthwaite,  who  produced  the  celebrated  Archdeacon 
Thackeray,  whose  great-grandson  was  the  eminent  novelist,  Win. 
Makepeace  Thackeray.  At  the  same  time  there  was  living  here  a 
farmer  of  the  name  of  Henry  Stubbs,  whose  long  connection  with  the 
Forest,  proclaims  a  probable  connection  with  the  family  of  the  learned 
author  of  the  Constitutional  History  of  England,  Dr.  William  Stubbs, 
now  Bishop  of  Oxford,  whose  Forest  ancestry  I  have  referred  to  in 
my  history  of  Nidderdale. 


CIIAPTKR     XIII. 


Il.KI.KV     HEKORF.     THE     NORMAN     ( '<>N(.U;  KST. 

Ilklcy  mentioned  by  I'tolemy      A  Hrigantian  station      Meaning  of  Oliinmi      The  Anglo- 
Saxou   subjugation      Conjectural   --lie  of  tlic    British    "city"      The   Roman  station 
Description     of    tlic    Roman     camp      Local    discox  cries      Tlic    "Ycrbcia-"    stone 
Meaning  of  Wharte     The  "Hercules"  stone,  its  probable  significance     Christianity 
prevailing  in  places  not    reached  by  the   Romans      The  Celtic   Church      Karly  forms 
of   baptism     A   remarkable    Roman    grave-slab   at    Ilklev     Other   discoveries— The 
Ilklcy   camp  the   focus  of  four    Roman    highways     Their  routes  described     Saxon 
Christianity  at    Ilklcy      Local   sculptured   cn>s-,r.      Local  influence  of  St.    Wilfrid  - 
Ilklev  a  Danish  mint      Antii|iiitv  of  'boundaries     Ancient  methods  of  cultivation. 

,11 K  history  of  Ilklev  begins  long  before  the  Roman 
occupation,  for  on  the  authority  of  Ptolemy,  who  lived 
in  the  reign  of  Antoninus  Pius,  ai.  A.D.  150,  we  learn 
that  this  place  was  one  of  the  nine  capital  cities  of  the 
Brigantes,  a  widespread,  brave  and  warlike  race 
composed  of  both  Celtic  and  pre-Celtic  clans.*  Had  these  various 
tribes  been  united  and  better  concerted  in  action,  instead  of  being 
continuously  at  strife  with  each  other,  they  would  probably  have 
successfully  resisted  the  Roman  conquest  in  the  north.  But  the 
British  dissension  was  Rome's  opportunity,  and  thus  we  find  that  the 
invaders  stormed  and  captured  one  by  one  the  British  camps,  or  in 
the  words  of  Juvenal,  Dinic  maurontin  iiftegias,  et  castra  Bngantum. 
In  the  list  of  thirty-three  cities  of  the  Britons  cited  by  Nennius  in 
the  eighth  or  ninth  century,  there  is  no  suggestion  of  Olicana  or 
Ilklev,  nor  even  of  hnrium  or  Aldborough,  which  is  said  to  have 
been  their  chief  stronghold,  shewing  how  little  reliance  can  be  placed 
on  complete  accuracy  of  the  early  historians.  That  much-doubted 
chronicler,  Richard  of  Cirencester,  names  eight  stations  of  the 
Brigantes,  five  of  which,  including  Olicana,  are  in  modern  Yorkshire.! 
What  may  be  the  true  meaning  of  this  word  Olicana  or  Alicana,  as 
sometimes  written,  is  difficult  to  decide.  The  latter  form  retains  a 
suggestion  of  the  Roman  alica,  a  coarsely-ground  kind  of  grain,  or 
spelt-grits,  from  which  a  nutritious  drink  was  made,  and  is  mentioned 
by  the  celebrated  Roman  physician  Cornelius  Celsus,  ca.  A.D.  40.  On 
the  whole,  however,  I  incline  to  the  belief  that  the  name  is  a 
Latinised  form  of  a  pre-existing  British  name,  in  which  either  the 

*  See  Elton's  Origins  <>f  English  History,  p.  242. 

I  So  learned  an  authority  as  the  Rev.  D.  H.  Haigh  "finds  it  impossible  to  endorse 
the  judgment  that  Richard  of  Cirencester's  Roman  Itinerary  was  a  forgery,"  but  he  will 
not  commit  himself  to  an  opinion  as  to  the  genuineness  of  the  Description  of  Britain 
which  accompanies  it.  Yorks.  Archl.  Jl.  iv.  82. 


i86 

elements,  ail,  a  cliff,  ol,  a  station,  and  ccann,  a  headland  or  rocky 
promontory,  enter.  Thus  Ol-y-ceann  would  be  the  station  by  the  rocky 
headland,  a  sufficiently  near  allocation  to  bring  in  the  prominent 
"Cow  and  Calf."  But  this  is  Goidelic-Celtic  rather  than  Cymric- 
Celtic,  which  the  names  in  this  part  of  Wharfedale  favor,  yet  there  is 
no  doubt  these  rugged  fastnesses  were  the  refuges  of  each  successive 
wave  of  Celtic  immigration.  It  should  also  be  considered  that  as  a 
cohort  of  the  Lingones  was  stationed  at  Ilkley,  some  additional 
weight  is  given  to  this  conjecture,  as  the  Lingones  were  Goidels  from 
Celtic  Gaul. 

The  arts  of  peace  usually  bring  in  their  train  luxury  and 
effeminacy,  and  so  it  proved  with  the  Roman-conquered  Britons,  who 
on  the  Roman  withdrawal  in  the  fifth  century  fell  an  easy  prey  to 
the  hungry  and  eager  Anglo-Saxon  pirates.  Still  whatever  may  be 
the  original  import  of  the  Roman  Olicana,  singularly  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  verb  olcecan,  meaning  to  fawn,  to  please,  to  gratify,  or  in  a 
secondary  sense,  to  cringe,  to  obey,  to  submit  to  superior  force,* 
expresses  pretty  clearly  what  we  may  expect  to  have  taken  place  on 
the  subjugation  of  the  Ilkley  stronghold  by  the  Anglo-Saxons,  who 
so  far  flattered  or  terrorised  over  the  natives,  that  the  latter  united 
with  the  new-comers.  Or  what  is  more  likely  they  fell  back  for  a 
time  on  the  surrounding  heights,  while  the  foe  quietly  occupied  the 
more  fertile  lands  they  found  already  cultivated,  just  as  in  recent 
times  English  settlers  seized  the  fertile  riparian  lands  in  Australia, 
when  the  poor  aborigines  withdrew  to  the  wastes.  As  bearing  out 
the  idea  of  British  cultivation  at  Ilkley,  before  the  Anglian  Conquest 
I  shall  have  more  to  say  on  the  subject  when  I  come  to  consider  the 
aspects  of  the  manor  during  the  Norman  period. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  two  important  Brigantian  stations  at 
Ilkley  and  Aldborough  fell  to  the  Roman  power  on  the  invasion  of 
the  district  by  Agricola;  who  was  appointed  legate  of  Britain  in  A.D. 
78.  This  great  general  made  Deva  (Chester)  the  point  of  starting 
and  attacking  the  difficult  region  of  the  Brigantes ;  following  no  doubt, 
much  the  same  route  as  afterwards  formed  the  military  highway 
between  Manchester,  Ilkley,  and  Aldborough.  That  the  victory  of 
Agricola  in  these  parts  is  not  mere  assumption  is  shewn  by  the  fact 
that  the  local  lead  mines  were  in  possession  of  the  Romans  within  a 
few  years  subsequently.  There  was  discovered  on  Hayshaw  Moor, 
to  the  north  of  the  Roman  road  from  Ilkley  by  Blubberhouses,  two 
fine  pigs  of  lead  inscribed  with  the  name  of  the  Emperor  Domitian, 
who  reigned  from  A.D.  81  to  96,  and  also  the  date  of  his  consulate 
(A.D.  87)  and  the  word  Brig,  (meaning  smelted  in  the  country  of  the 
Brigantes) ;  thus  affording  excellent  evidence  that  the  lead  mines  of 
the  district  were  then  under  Roman  control.! 

*  Vide  Diet.  Saxonico-Latino-Anglicum,  opera  et  studio  Gul.  Somneri  (1639). 
f  See  the  author's  Nidderdale,  p.  417. 


r87 

That  Briton  and  Roman  and  subsequently  Romano-Briton  and 
Anglo-Saxon  were  eventually  united  in  common  husbandry  in  this 
district  is  proved  on  the  evidence  of  several  Goidelic  and  Cymric 
place-names  still  existing  in  the  neighbourhood.  These  British 
names  have  passed  down  as  living  words  on  the  lips  of  Saxon  and 
Norman  and  have  survived  to  the  present  day.  Had  the  Britons 
been  dispersed  or  refused  allegiance  to  the  foreign  conquerors,  their 
language,  of  course,  would  have  perished  with  them,  and  the 
invaders  would  have  coined  names  for  the  cliffs  and  moors,  and  fields 
in  their  own  language.  Instead  we  find  that  some  of  the  most 
ancient  names  are  still  in  vogue. 

The  site  of  the  original  British  "city"  at  Ilkley  can  only  be 
conjectured.  For  a  time  no  doubt  the  conquests  of  Agricola  wrought 
sad  havoc  in  the  district.  Tacitus  speaks  of  the  Britons  forsaking 
and  burning  their  own  houses  out  of  rage  and  fury,  and  of  shifting 
from  one  hole  to  another  on  their  defeat  by  the  strangely-equipped 
legions  of  Agricola.  He  also  speaks  of  deserted  houses  and  burning 
dwellings  of  the  Britons  on  the  hill-sides  and  eminences,  and  of  their 
scouts  not  meeting  a  soul.*  The  probability  is  that  the  original 
station  was  nearer  the  sheltering  crags,  and  not  far  from  the  wonderful 
perennial  springs  for  which  Ilkley  is  still  famous,  rather  than  beside 
the  open  river,  where  the  Romans  erected  their  castra.  The  Brigantes 
ate  no  fish,  though  they  might  get  it  in  plenty,  as  we  learn  from  Dio 
Nicaeus,  out  of  Xiphilin's  Epitome,  but  lived  by  hunting  and  on  the  fruit 
of  trees. f  They  also  kept  cattle,  which  Caesar  tells  us  was  their  chief 
wealth.  The  extensive  ancient  enclosures  under  Green  Hill  on  the 
moor  south  of  Lanshaw  Delves  have  doubtless  been  places  for  cattle, 
having  a  rampart  with  a  stockade,  but  the  existing  foundations  are 
rectangular  or  oblong,  or  of  post-Roman  date,  and  in  all  probability 
are  referrable  to  the  5th  century  withdrawal  of  the  Romanised  Britons 
on  the  Anglian  irruption.  I  shall  return  to  this  subject  when  dealing 
with  the  antiquities  of  the  neighbouring  moors. 

The  foundation-walls  of  the  Roman  castra,  within  which  stands 
the  old  Parish  Church,  are  still  well  defined  on  the  north,  west  and 
east  sides.  On  the  north  and  east  especially  they  form  steep 
escarpments  in  which  here  and  there  the  original  masonry  may  be 
seen  exposed.  This  consists  of  the  gritstone  of  the  country,  cemented 
together  with  a  wonderful  mixture  of  lime  and  pebbles  retaining  the 
courses  as  firmly  as  when  first  built,  and  defying  the  ravages  of  time 
and  the  elements.  The  camp,  originally  of  turf,  was  restored  or 
rebuilt  with  stone  in  the  time  of  the  Emperor  Severus,  ca.  A.D.  200. 
The  small  area  of  it  proclaims  its  early  date,  while  the  Roman 
method  of  castrametation  was  usually  to  form  rectangular  or  straight 
faces  with  rounded  or  angular  corners,  the  latter  a  conspicuous 

*  See  Camden  nritannia  (Gibson's  ed.)  p.  Ixxvi.          I    Ibid.  p.  xliii. 


i88 

feature  of  their  design,  and  an  example  of  which  still  exists,  almost 
perfect,  on  Counter  Hill,  near  Addingham. 

When  the  Rev.  John  VVhitaker  visited  Ilkley  between  1760  and 
1770,  the  site  of  the  Roman  camp  was  such  that  he  was  able  to 
define  accurately  its  extent  and  appearance,  and  at  this  day  his 
description  is  worth  repeating.  He  says  : — 

The  area  of  the  Roman  Camp  in  Ilkley  can  be  clearly  traced.  It  is  pointed  out  by 
the  appellation,  Castle  Hill,  and  by  the  remains  of  the  rampart.  The  ground  is  admirably 
defended  by  the  Wharfe  on  the  north,  and  by  two  brooks  on  the  sides.  The  western 
brook  has  had  half  its  waters  diverted  into  another  channel,  but  must  have  been  a  lively 
current  before  this,  and  given  strength  to  a  brow  naturally  steep,  and  rising'  from  ten  to 
fifteen  yards  above  it,  but  in  the  eastern  channel,  the  brook  is  still  extremely  brisk,  and 
runs  about  twenty  yards  below  the  crest  of  the  eminence.  Both  of  them  discharge  their 
waters  into  the  Wharfe  immediately  below.  The  camp  was  about  100  yards  by  160,  the 
northern  barrier  ranging  along  the  course  of  the  present  land,  parallel  with  and  about 
twenty  yards  to  the  north  of  the  road  from  Broughton  to  Aldborough,  and  the  whole 
area  contains  about  four  acres  of  ground  ;*  encompassing  the  castle,  and  including  the 
present  church  and  cemetery.  The  wall  of  the  station  can  be  seen  at  the  north-western 
angle,  and  is  easily  discovered  under  the  turf  along  the  whole  verge  of  the  brow,  being 
of  the  rough  millstone-grit  of  the  country.  The  town  was  built  very  near  the  station 
along  the  course  of  the  road  from  Broughton,  in  Banks  Croft,  Scafe  Croft,  and  some 
adjoining  closes,  and  there  fragments  of  brick,  remarkably  red,  have  been  dug  up,  and 
the  foundations  of  houses  remain  very  visible  at  present,  f 

On  the  abrupt  eastern  face,  overhanging  the  ravine,  may  still 
be  seen,  as  I  have  myself  observed,  bits  of  red  Samian  ware  as  well 
as  other  fragments  of  glass,  tiles,  pottery,  and  bones,  protruding  from 
the  ramparts,  or  having  become  dislodged  have  fallen  into  the  brook 
below.  But  no  complete  excavation  of  the  camp  has  yet  been  made. 
A  well  of  probable  Roman  antiquity  was  discovered  a  few  years  ago 
while  draining  the  main  street. 

Camden  was  the  first  to  record  (A.D.  1586)  that  the  Ilkley  camp 
was  rebuilt  in  Severus'  time  by  Virius  Lupus,  Legate  and  Propraetor 
of  Britain  (fa.  A.D.  196-202),  a  circumstance  deduced  from  a  stone 
then  lately  dug  up  near  the  church.  He  read  it  as  follows:  IM. 

SEVERVS    AVG    ET    ANTON INVS    CAES   DESTINATVS    RESTITVERVNT    CVRANTE 

VIRIO  LVPO  LEG  EORVM  PR  PR.  What  has  become  of  this  interesting 
memorial  is  not  exactly  known,  but  it  is  probably  at  Myddelton 
Lodge  and  the  inscription  is  now  defaced.^  Another  stone  mentioned 
by  Camden  as  in  the  walls  of  the  church  cannot  now  be  traced.  It 
was  inscribed  :  RVM  CAES  AVG  ANTONINI  ET  VERI  lovi  DILECTI 
CAECILIVS  PRAEF  COM.  On  the  death  of  Antoninus,  surnamed  the 

*  The  camp  on  Castor  Cliff,  Colne  (the  Roman  Colonio)  is  of  similar  small  dimensions 
though  nearly  a  square,  measuring  183  by  173  yards,  which  includes  the  ground  occupied 
by  the  double  ditch  and  rampart.  The  actual  area  of  the  camp  within  the  walls  is  126 
by  113  yards.  It  is  usually  assigned  to  the  time  of  Agricola. 

f  History  of  Manchester,  (1771). 

£  Only  one  other  altar  in  Britain  has  been  found  bearing  the  name  of  this  legate, 
and  that  is  at  Bowes,  where  the  inscription  states  that  a  bath  there  was  restored  by 
Virius  Lupus  under  the  care  of  Valerius  Fronto,  of  the  Vettonian  Horse. 


i8g 

Pious,  in  A.D.  161,  (a  coin  of  whose  reign,  I  am  imformed,  has  lately 
been  dug  up  at  Grassington)  Marcus  Aurelius  and  Lucius  Verus 
became  joint  associates  in  governing  the  State,  and  it  was  during 
their  reign  that  Britain  broke  out  in  revolt.  But  favored  by  Jove  or 
Jupiter  (the  greatest  of  all  the  gods,  the  Diu-pater  "father  of  the 
heavens'')  they  triumphed,  and  this  stone  was  raised  at  Ilkley  in 
their  honour  by  Caecilius,  prefect  of  the  cohort.  Verus  died  in 
A.D.  169.  Camden  also  saw  a  remarkable  old  altar-stone,  "now," 
he  says  "put  under  a  pair  of  stairs,"  but  which  was  long  ago  removed 
to  Myddelton  Lodge,  where  I  have  seen  it  and  find  that  the  two  or 
three  centuries  of  constant  exposure  has  left  no  sign  of  an  inscription. 
The  stone  is  eighteen  inches  square  and  five  feet  high.  Camden's 

reading    of   it    was:    VERBEIAE    SACRUM    CLOD1VS    FRONTO    PRAEF    COH    II 

LINGONES.  The  critical  eye  of  Thoresby  saw  however  in  the  final 
words  "p.  LINGONES,'''  while  Warburton,  who  made  a  drawing  of  the 
altar  in  1718,  read  it  "p.  LINGON",  hence  the  ^rc/ and  not  the  second 
cohort,  whose  commander  had  dedicated  this  altar  to  Verbeise, 
apparently  the  goddess  of  the  river.  For  we  gather  from  various 
Roman  authors  that  rivers  had  altars  dedicated  to  them,  and  every 
important  stream  had  its  nymph  presiding  over  it.*  This  Verbeiae 
may  be  a  Latinised  form  of  the  GoideJic  guerif,  to  heal,  and  as  there 
are  a  number  of  healing  springs,  anciently  efficacious  in  a  bodily  as 
well  as  a  spiritual  sense,  that  flow  into  the  Wharfe,  the  river  may 
possibly  have  got  its  name  from  these  votive  waters.!  The  Lingones, 
I  have  pointed  out,  were  Celts  from  Gaul,  and  the  French,  says 
Camden,  use  the  word  giierir  to  express  the  above  meaning.  The 
Saxon  form  however,  as  written  by  Simeon  of  Durham,  is  Hwerf, 
which  may  be  variously  interpreted.  In  the  Cotton  MSS.  of  the 
Gospels,  the  Vulgate  Latin  text  of  which  was  written  about  A.D.  680, 
the  word  implies  a  loan,  exchange,  or  conversion;  while  in  the  Rush- 
worth  or  Northumbrian  Gloss  or  version  of  the  four  Gospels,  written 
in  the  tenth  century,  hwcorf  means  distance.  Again  I  find  in  the 
Diet.  Saxonico  Latino-Anglicum  of  Somneri,  published  in  1659,  hweorfa 
is  rendered  a  whirl,  what  is  hastily  turned  round,  and  the  verb  hweorfan 
means  to  turn,  change,  wander,  or  return,  while  in  Credmon's  Metrical 
Paraphrase,  Anglo-Saxon  and  English,  by  Thorpe  (1832)  hwearfian, 
cognate  with  the  Norse  hvarf,  a  sharp  bend,  similarly  implies  a 
turning  or  winding  round ;  though  if  twisting  or  turning  be  the  true 
meaning  of  Wharfe,  it  is  difficult  to  understand  why  this  characteristic 
should  be  applied  to  the  Wharfe  in  preference  to  other  of  the 
Yorkshire  rivers,  unless  it  be  from  the  fact  that  the  Wharfe  after 


*  In  1702  an  altar  was  found  at  Greta  Bridge,  near  Barnard  Castle,  dedicated  to  the 
nymph  goddess  Elauna,  apparently  the  nymph  of  the  Lune. 

fin  South  Africa  garief  means  a  river,  e.g.,  Ky-garief  (yellow   river),   Nu-garief 

(black  rivt-r)  £r.      I'/V/r  Blarkii-'s  I'hui'  Xames,  p.  87. 


190 

flowing  almost  due  south  to  Ilkley,  makes  a  sharp  bend  eastwards 
under  the  Chevin  towards  Harewood  and  York.* 

There  is  a  curiously  sculptured  stone  in  the  north  wall  of  the 
tower,  but  unfortunately  concealed  by  the  raised  wooden  flooring, 
though  a  plaster-cast  has  been  made  of  it,  which  may  be  seen  in  the 
church.  The  stone  is  uninscribed  and  bears  the  design  in  relief  of 
a  half-length  human  figure,  with  the  head  half-encircled  with  a  hood 
or  cap.  There  are  two  serpent-like  objects  passing  from  the  top  of 
the  stone  down  each  side  of  the  head  and  the  ends  are  apparently 
grasped  one  in  each  hand.  If  one  may  accept  Cough's  tradition 


THE     ILKLEY     STONE. 


FONT     AT     EAST     HADDON. 


(vide  Camdeti)  that  "it  is  a  statue  of  the  goddess  Verbeiae,  and  was 
anciently  placed  on  her  altar,"  the  inference  may  be  drawn  that  the 
two  serpentine  objects  are  intended  to  typify  the  courses  of  certain 
sacred  streams  entering  the  symbolized  body  of  the  Wharfe.  But 
this  is  a  very  plausible  theory.  The  stone  may  possibly  have  some 
connection  with  the  river  or  holy-water,  and  I  am  prone  to  believe  it 
was  in  this  way.  The  serpent  is  always  in  early  Christian  sculpture 
the  symbol  of  evil  or  of  sin,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  these  two  long 
snake-like  objects  have  this  particular  character  and  meaning.  They 
are  apparently  being  strangled  by  the  small-waisted,  youthful  figure 

*  The  village  of  Wharfe,   near  Austwick,  appears  in  the  Poll  Tax  (Austwyk)  for 
'.W  as  Qlterf- 


t9t 

shewn  on  the  stone,  thus  symbolizing,  I  venture  to  think,  the  conquest 
of  sin  after  baptism.  The  sculpture  is  commonly  accepted  as  a 
representation  of  the  infant  Hercules  strangling  the  serpents,  but  the 
figure  has  little  to  suggest  the  god  of  strength,  nor  can  I  conceive 
what  a  statue  of  Verbeise  has  to  do  with  strangling  serpents. 

Some  support,  however,  is  given  to  my  contention  by  the  fact 
of  the  representation  of  strangled  serpents  on  certain  baptismal  fonts 
(and  perhaps  the  drowned  leviathans  on  the  Burnsall  font  conveys  the 
same  meaning).  For  example,  on  the  Norman  font  at  East  Haddon, 
in  Northamptonshire  (shewn  on  the  annexed  plate),  there  is  sculptured 
in  low  relief  a  similar  slender  half-length  figure,  wearing  a  flat  or 
slightly  rounded  hood,  and  grasping  in  each  hand  a  long  writhing 
serpent,  each  being  carried  to  the  right  and  left  half  way  round  the 
font.  Appearing  on  such  an  object  it  has  doubtless  the  meaning 
above  expressed.  But  whether  the  Ilkley  stone  be  Roman  or  later 
I  am  not  prepared  to  say.  It  may  possibly  have  formed  some  part 
of  a  baptistery  even  during  the  Roman  occupation  of  Ilkley,  as  the 
priest  Tertullian,  writing  about  the  year  208,  mentions  the  consecration 
of  water  at  baptism  (De  Bapt.  c.iv.),  though  it  was  not  till  the  reign  of 
Constantine  the  Great,  or  early  in  the  4th  century,  that  baptisteries 
first  came  into  use,  and  they  were  then,  moreover,  invariably 
furnished  with  an  altar. 

I  have  elsewhere  contended  that  the  early  Christians  found  a 
strong  refuge  in  the  recesses  of  the  Wharfedale  moors  during  their 
persecutions  and  varying  fortunes  in  the  after-days  of  the  Romans. 
The  same  priest,  Tertullian,  (ca.  208),  tells  us  plainly  that  the  lamp 
of  divine  truth  had  begun  to  shine  "in  camp,  and  senate,  and  forum," 
in  remote  parts  of  Britain,  while  the  further  statement  is  made : — 
Brittannorum  inaccessa  Romanis  loca,  Christo  veto  subdita.  No  other 
construction  can  be  put  upon  these  words  than  that  Christ  had 
conquered  even  places  in  Britain  which  the  Romans  had  not  then 
reached.  That  the  Britons  were  Christians  at  this  early  period  is 
also  reasserted  by  Origen  in  239.*  It  is  indeed  not  too  much  to 
affirm — nay,  I  do  so  with  the  fullest  conviction — that  even  so  late  as 
the  conquest  of  Saxon  Northumbria  by  the  Cymric  Christian  Cadwalla 
in  633,  the  Britons  were  in  ignorance  of  any  connection  with  Romish 
Christianity,  and  the  council  at  Whitby  in  664  strongly  confirms  this. 
What  district  then  more  likely  than  Wharfedale,  in  the  heart  of 
Christian  Elmete,  as  authorities  are  agreed  it  proved,  to  stand  by 
the  old  Celtic  usages,  and  further  the  divine  impulsus?  Even  after 
the  forced  suppression  of  the  Celtic  Church,  the  persuasive  St.  Wilfrid, 
notwithstanding  the  eloquence  of  his  tongue  and  the  erection  of 

*  See  Haddon  and  Stubbs,  Couticils  i.  3.     f  See  also  George  Esdaile's  paper  on  this 
snl)'|cct  in  the  Transactions  of  the   I.ano.  and  Cheshire  Antiq.  Socv.  vol.    vii.  p.   108-116. 


192 

beautiful  crosses,  found  it  next  to  impossible  to  convert  the  steadfast 
Britons,  as  we  learn  from  the  venerable  Bede.  There  can  surely  be 
no  district  in  England  (considering,  too,  its  remote  and  mountainous 
character),  richer  in  early  Christian  memorials  than  Wharfedale  in 
Elmete.  Ilkley,  like  Otley,  I  take  to  have  been  a  stronghold  of  the 
simple  Apostolic  Celtic  Church,  and  there  is  abundant  negative 
evidence  to  support  this  belief.  And  before  the  Romans  left  Britain 


ROMAN   GRAVESTONE    FOUND   AT    ILKLEY. 

it  is  certain  that  the  faith  of  Christ  was  followed,  in  name  at  least, 
by  every  country  in  Western  Europe,  save  Germany,  and  even  in  the 
remotest  parts  of  North  Britain  and  Ireland.*  And  all  this  gives 
color  to  the  belief  that  the  ordination  of  baptism  was  not  unknown  in 
Wharfedale  even  in  Roman  times. 

A   stone    found    at   Ilkley   in    1867,    while    excavating   for   the 

*  See  O'Hanlon's  Lives  of  Irish  Saints,  vols.   ii.  iii.   iv. ;    also  Aran,  Pagan  and 
Christian,  by  W.  F.  Wakeman  in  Duffy's  Hibernian  Magazine,  vol.  i.  p.  577. 


' 


T-SIBI:  E  r 


ROMAN  GRAVE  SLAB  AT  YORK. 


194 

foundations  of  the  Independent  Chapel,  in  Green  Lane,  may 
possibly  bear  upon  this  subject.  It  is  five  feet  eight  inches  long  and 
three  feet  four  inches  wide,  and  is  now  at  Myddelton  Lodge.  It  is 
divided  into  two  parts,  the  uppermost  occupied  by  raised  sculptures 
of  three  human  beings,  said  to  be  a  father,  mother,  and  child,  and 
the  lower  compartment  has  an  uninscribed  rectangular  tablet  having 
an  arm  on  each  side  forming  a  kind  of  cross-patee.  The  top  of  the 
stone  is  arched,  the  centre  point  being  raised  a  little  above  the  line 
of  impost,  the  inner  arch  being  semi-circular  and  the  outer  pointed. 
The  late  Mr.  F.  A.  Leyland,  the  historian,  of  Halifax,  was  the  first 
to  point  out  that  the  centre  figure  represents  a  priest,  as  shewn  by 
the  chasuble,  cup,  and  wafer,  while  the  deacon  in  Mass  canonicals 
appears  on  the  left,  and  on  the  right  is  depicted  a  youthful  acolyte, 
with  his  symbols  ;  all  the  figures  being  robed  in  vestments  as  worn 
at  the  altar,  and  in  which  it  was  usual  to  bury  them.  The  stone 
may  possibly  have  been  a  memorial  slab,  like  one  at  York  here 
depicted  for  comparison,  which  commemorates  the  wife  of  one  C. 
yEresius,  a  soldier  of  the  sixth  legion,  and  his  infant  son  and 
daughter.*  See  illustrations  on  pages  192  and  193. 

Other  sculptured  stones,  as  well  as  pottery,  urns,  glass,  and 
Roman  hand-mills  have  been  dug  up  from  time  to  time  in  and  about 
the  site  of  the  camp.  A  fine  vase  was  also  discovered  while 
excavating  for  the  foundations  of  the  railway  station.  Few  coins 
have  been  found,  and  these  include  two  silver  ones  of  Antoninus 
Pius  (A.D.  138-161)  and  a  few  brass  ones  of  Vespasian  and  Hadrian 
(A.D.  69-138).  Mr.  J.  A.  Middlebrook,  of  Ilkley,  has  also  shewed 
me  a  coin  of  Trajan  which  was  found  whilst  sodding  behind  the 
Lister  Arms  hotel  (the  sods  were  brought  from  Middleton)  some  three 
or  four  years  ago,  which  I  have  been  able  to  decipher  as  follows  : 

Ob.  IMP  CAES  NER  TRAIANO  OPTIMO  AVG  GER  DAC.   Rev.  PM  TRP  COS  VI 

pp  SPQR  OB  cs.  (Pater  patriae  ;  senatus  populus  que  Romanus  ob  civis 
sen'atos ;  i.e.  the  Roman  Senate  and  people  for  saving  the  citizens). 
Trajan  was  Governor  of  Germany  and  the  first  foreigner  who  reigned 
in  Rome.  He  conquered  the  warlike  Dacians  and  added  their 
kingdom  to  the  Roman  Empire.  He  succeeded  Nerva  in  A.D.  98, 
and  died  in  117,  and  this  coin  was  struck  during  his  sixth  consulate. 
Many  of  the  objects  have  got  dispersed,  but  there  still  remains  a 

*  I  ;uri  told  that  the  design  as  thus  interpreted  has  been  doubted,  but  if  the 
sculpture  does  not  symbolize  Roman  Christianity,  one  would  like  to  know  what  it  does 
represent.  The  centre  figure  has  a  noticeably  smaller  and  less  masculine  head  than  the 
next  figure  of  equal  height,  and  may  represent  a  woman,  but  what  is  the  vessel  held  in 
the  right  hand  if  not  a  chalice?  Mr.  Langdon,  in  his  Early  Crosses  of  Cornwall  (1890), 
pictures  some  objects  sculptured  on  crosses  at  St.  Dennis  that  look  like  hour-glasses, 
and  observes  that  the  only  things  of  this  shape  which  he  has  seen  are  some  glass 
tumblers  about  three  inches  high  which  were  taken  out  of  a  grave  in  the  old  Roman 
burying  ground  near  Rio  Tinto,  in  Spain. 


195 

number  of  interesting  Roman  and  other  relics  found  in  the 
neighbourhood  in  the  museum  at  Ilkley.* 

The  camp  at  Ilkley  was  the  focus  of  four  important  Roman 
highways,  of  which,  however,  few  traces  are  now  in  evidence.  Some 
years  ago  when  the  brickworks  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river  were 
in  progress,  several  portions  of  a  paved  road  were  discovered, 
doubtless  continuous  with  that  over  Middleton  and  Blubberhouses 
Moors,-*-  crossing  the  Nidd  near  Hampsthwaite  Church  and  thence 
towards  Aldborough.  It  may  be  traced  to  the  west  of  Middleton 
Moorhouses,  and  passes  close  to  an  old  quarry  west  of  Windsover 
Farm  (A.S.  windl,  to  wind,  and  ofer,  a  border,  boundary,  or  shore). 
This  road  from  Ilkley  appears  to  have  taken  an  almost  due  north 
and  south  direction.  Mr.  J.  A.  Middlebrook,  of  Ilkley,  tells  me  that 
whilst  his  men  were  draining  three  years  ago  in  the  Rose  and  Crown 
yard,  they  came  upon  a  cobble  pavement  twelve  feet  wide,  which 
was  again  found  in  the  Grove  near  the  District  Council's  offices.* 

The  second  of  these  roads,  already  described,  crossed  Bramhope 
Moor  and  the  Chevin  from  Adel,§  and  a  third  left  Ilkley  on  the 
west,  and,  says  John  Whitaker  (1771),  "is  still  traceable  for  three 
miles  together  from  Ilkley,  and  then  appears  very  conspicuous  for  a 
whole  one  upon  a  large  moor  in  the  parish  of  old  Addingham. 
Here  it  is  parallel  with  and  a  few  yards  to  the  south  of  the  present 
way  to  Skipton  "  (by  Cross  Bank  and  over  Draughton  Heights  near 
Close  House),  passing  some  distance  to  the  south  of  the  town." 
Crossing  the  Aire  valley  it  can  still  be  traced  south  of  Broughton 
Church, ||  and  thence  in  a  south-westerly  direction  between  Barnolds- 

An  account  of  the  objects  in  the  museum,  by  .Mr.  \Vm.  Cudworth,  will  be  found 
in  the  Reliquary  for  October,  1898. 

f  On  Blubberhouses  Moor  a  cart-track  occupies  the  ancient  stratum  for  about  a  mile, 
which  is  only  used  by  the  farmers  when  carting  peat  and  turf  from  the  moor.  The  road 
here  is  not  paved  with  large  stones  edged  with  still  larger  [as  described  by  Dr. 
Whitaker],  but  composed  of  broken  stones  or  rough  gravel,  with  a  raised  centre  ii> 
allow  the  escape  of  water  to  the  sides,  similar  to  our  best  modern  roads,  about  ten  feet 
in  width  and  a  foot  in  thickness.  .SVr  \Vm.  Grainge's  Thnhli'  (1895),  page  85,  and  ,w 
also  his  History  of  Harrogate,  &c.  (1871),  page  32. 

£  See  also  Bradford  Antiquary  (1898),  p.  .253. 

S  In  the  middle  of  a  field  at  the  end  of  Cross  Lane  on  the  south  side  of  York  Gate 
plantation  is  a  flatfish  rough-shaped  stone,  nearly  six  feet  high,  which  is  believed  to  be 
a  Roman  mile-stone.  No  inscription  is  visible  upon  it,  nor  is  it  within  fifty  yards  ot 
the  mapped  direction  of  the  Roman  road.  The  base  is  below  the  ground,  and  is  said 
to  be  socketed  to  retain  the  upright  stone. 

^f  History  of  Manchester  (\Yi\\  p.  194. 

The  rector  of  Broughton  informs  me  that  in  the  spring  of  1899  while  some 
draining  was  being  carried  on  in  low-lying  ground,  about  300  yards  south  of  the 
church,  he  told  the  man  to  keep  a  sharp  look  out  for  the  Roman  road,  marked  on  the 
Ordnance  Map  at  this  point.  The  pavement  was  discovered  about  two  feet  below  the 
surface,  composed  of  large  setts,  and  the  road  is  seven  yards  wide.  The  rector  has  also 
lately  obtained  a  Roman  coin  of  Constantine  the  Great,  found  by  a  man  while  digging 
war  Craroe.  Another  coin  of  this  Kmperor  was  found  at  Graxsington. 


196 

wick  and  Bracewell  by  Chatburn  to  Ribchester.  Drake  in  his 
Eboracum  (A.D.  1736),  in  referring  to  this  road  from  Ribchester  to 
Ilkley,  mentions  Warburton's  map*  shewing  the  direction  of  the  road, 
whose  stone  pavement,  he  says,  "is  yet  in  many  places  very  firm, 
being  eight  yards  broad.  It  comes  to  Gisburn,  crosses  Ramwalds 
Moor  to  that  known  station  Olicana."  The  road  from  Ilkley  to 
Colne  (Co/onio)  appears  to  have  taken  a  very  round-about  course, 
following  the  Manchester  road  southwards  to  near  Denholme,  whence 
its  direction  was  westwards  through  Oxenhope.  But  there  seems  no 
reason  why  these  stations  should  not  have  been  reached  by  a  much 
quicker  route,  and  there  are  good  grounds  for  assuming  that  this  was 
the  case.  The  Manchester  road  came  by  Hainworth  and  in  all 
probability  crossed  the  river  Aire  between  Stockbridge  and  East 
Riddlesden  Hall  (where  is  an  ancient  ford),  thence  it  mounted  the 
hill  direct  past  Upwood  and  Brass  Castle.  But  a  mile  to  the  west 
of  this  road  in  the  Aire  valley  are  indications  of  an  ancient  thorough- 
fare crossing  the  river  at  a  place  called  Jow  or  Jowl  Hole  in  Low 
Utley,  whence  it  probably  took  along  the  hill  side  towards  Steeton, 
and  an  old  lane  leading  from  the  south  end  of  the  village  was,  until 
the  new  road  was  made,  called  Wood  Street.!  Whether  any  road 
crossed  the  moor  hence  direct  westwards  to  Colne,  or  whether  there 
was  a  direct  route  to  the  camp  at  Broughton,  nothing  satisfactory 
can  be  said.  It  was  however,  not  far  from  Elam  Grange,  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  river  to  Low  Utley,  and  probably  a  mile  west  of 
the  Manchester  and  Ilkley  road,  that  the  famous  copper  chest 
containing  nearly  icolb.  weight  of  Roman  denarii,  was  found,  the 
intrinsic  value  of  which  was  about  ^400. 

The  south  road  from  Ilkley  to  Manchester  has  been  described 
in  an  exhaustive  paper  by  Mr.  J.  Norton  Dickons,  ex-president  of  the 
Bradford  Historical  Society. §  This  road  enters  Yorkshire  from 
Lancashire  by  the  elevated  moors  of  Blackstone  Edge,  where  for 
about  a  mile  the  paved  roadway,  16  feet  wide,  with  its  curious  centre 
groove,  is  still  visible.  With  the  exception  of  the  four  or  five  miles 
of  pavement  over  the  Gog-Magog  Hills,  near  Cambridge,  this  is 
perhaps  the  most  extensive  and  perfect  Roman  military  way  now 
remaining  exposed  in  England.  The  road  passes  through  the  parish 
of  Bingley,*'  and  as  stated  above,  probably  crossed  the  Aire  near 
Stockbridge,  whence  ascending  the  hill  by  the  mansion  of  Upwood, 
where  the  late  Mr.  Busfeild,  M.P.,  who  died  in  1851,  "broke  up  at 
various  times  nearly  a  mile  of  this  road  within  his  property."  it 

*  This  map  is  exceedingly  rare,  and  the  only  known  copy  is  in  the  Bradford  Public 
Library. 

t  See  the  author's  Airedale,  p.  197.    £  See  the  author's  Old  Bingley,  pp.  58,  338,  &c. 
§  Vide  Bradford  Antiquary,  1898,  pp.  239-254  (with  map). 
*!  See  the  author's  "Old  Bingley,"  pp.  53-58. 
Vide  Cudworth's  Round  about  Bradford,  p.  186. 


i97 

traverses  RiiinbuMs  Moor,  and  "the  slope  of  Weary  Hill  on  the  lines 
of  the  modern  road  from  Keighley  behind  the  Wells  House  at  Ilkley, 
but  in  a  more  direct  line."*  Among  the  collection  of  antiquities 
exhibited  at  the  meeting  of  the  Archrelogical  Institute  at  York  in  1846 
there  was  shewn  by  Miss  M.  Ellis,  of  Castlefield,  Bingley,  impressions 
from  silver  coins  of  Domitian,  Antoninus,  M.  Aurelius,  and  Commodus. 
from  the  hoard  found  at  Elam,  near  Keighley,  together  with  three 
plans,  shewing  the  course  of  the  Roman  road  in  the  parish  of  Bingley, 
and  ancient  remains  near  that  place. f  What  has  become  of  these 
plans  I  have  been  unable  to  discover  after  the  fullest  enquiry. 

The  impetus  given  to  Romanized  Christianity  in  Wharfedale  by 
the  preaching  of  Paulinas  in  the  yth  century,  and  afterwards  by  St. 
Wilfrid,  I  have  already  dwelt  upon,  and  Ilkley  boasts  the  possession 
of  three  Christian  crosses  of  this  period,  of  almost  unrivalled  excellence 
of  workmanship.  They  are  ideals  in  Christian  sculpture,  and  represent 
the  climax  of  pre-Norman  art.  From  what  I  have  written  about 
Otley  as  a  stronghold  of  Celtic  Christianity  in  the  north,  it  is 
extremely  probable  that  Paulinas  himself  and  St.  Wilfrid  a  little  later 
visited  both  Otley  and  Ilkley,  and  these  superb  crosses  mark  the 
epoch  of  a  great  Christian  endeavour.  The  valley  of  the  VVharfe  is 
still  exceptionally  rich  in  early  sculptured  crosses,  which  seem  to 
indicate  the  revival  of  a  faith  that  had  long  slumbered, — a  kind  of 
joyous  peal  rung  through  the  heart  of  old  Elmete  in  these  imperishable 
emblems  of  Our  Lord's  Passion  ! 

In  the  contorted  animal  forms  shewn  on  these  crosses  which 
are  represented  biting  their  tails,  or  with  a  single  paw  raised  in  an 
attitude  of  weak  defiance,  the  whole  surmounted  by  the  glorified 
Christ  (unless  this  be  a  representation  of  St.  Wilfrid,  with  his  pastoral 
staff)  we  apparently  discern  the  triumph  of  Christianity  over  the  base 
religion  of  the  gods,  as  exemplified  in  the  apochryphal  Gospel  of  the 
Nativity,  when  dragons  and  beasts  knew  the  Saviour  in  the  desert 
and  acknowledged  Him.  We  find  the  same  unsettled  idea  expressed 
at  a  later  date'  in  the  protracted  contest  between  Danish  paganism 
and  native  Christianity,  when  St.  Olaf  (who  appears  to  have  inherited 
the  attributes  of  Thor  in  the  Norse  mythology)  is  represented  as 
trampling  on  the  dragon,  and  in  whose  honor  many  churches  in 
England  are  dedicated.  It  is,  indeed,  not  unlikely  that  St.  Olaf  in 
this  guise  is  the  original  of  St.  George,  the  patron  saint  of  England. 
The  three  crosses  have  been  permanently  fixed  in  a  stone  base  in 
Ilkley  churchyard,  and  they  have  been  described  by  Mr.  T.  J. 
Pettigrew,  F.R.S.,  and  a  later  and  much  fuller  description  of  them 
has  been  given  by  Mr.  J.  Romilly  Allen,  F.S.A.,  accompanied  by 
illustrations.^  The  two  shorter  crosses  had  for  a  long  time  served 

*  Bradford  Antiquary,  1898,  p.  250.      f  See  Proc .  Anhl.  hist.,  1846,  Pt.  ii.  pp.  9-13. 
•£See  Brit.  Archaeol.  Jl.  vol.  xx.  (1864)  and  vol.  xl.  (1884);   also  Phillip's  Rivers, 
Mountains  &c.  ofYvrksh.  (1855)  pi.  17,  and  Whitakcr's  Craven,  ,-,rd  cd.  (1878)  p.  284. 


198 

ignominiously  as  gate  posts  to  the  churchyard.  The  principal  cross, 
which  is  of  local  gritstone,  is  eight  feet  four  inches  high,  without 
head,  which  is  lost.  On  one  side  of  it  are  four  panels,  each  bearing 
a  symbolical  figure  of  the  four  Evangelists  holding  the  book  of  his 
Gospel,  and  arranged  from  the  bottom  in  this  order  (i)  St.  Matthew 
(the  Man),  (2)  St.  Mark  (the  Lion),  (3)  St.  Luke  (the  Bull),  (4)  St. 
John  (the  Eagle).  On  the  opposite  side  are  four  other  panels,  three 
of  them  bearing  designs  of  upright  (interlaced)  animals,  as  described 
above,  while  the  top  one  has  a  human  figure  clothed  and  nimbed, 
holding  in  the  left  hand  a  pastoral  staff  with  the  crook  turned 
outwards,  perhaps  intended  to  represent  the  Saviour.  The  two  other 
sides  are  beautifully  ornamented  in  a  uniform  scroll  pattern, 
terminating  with  bunches  of  grapes  and  leaves.  This  design  and 
the  frequent  use  of  the  vine  in  Northumbrian  crosses,  is  one  of  the 
most  common  ornaments  of  the  crosses  in  Italy  and  France,  and 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  its  use  in  our  neighbourhood  is  referrable 
to  the  skilled  workmen  whom  St.  Wilfrid  brought  with  him  from  the 
Continent.  At  St.  Wilfrid's  church  at  Hexham,  begun  in  674,  we 
have  the  same  vine  pattern  as  at  Ilkley  and  Otley.*  The  familiar 
triquetra,  or  three-cornered  knot  (in  this  case  angular)  also  appears 
on  one  of  these  sides.  There  are  also  two  interlaced  serpentine 
animals  depicted  at  the  bottom  of  the  same  side,  beneath  the 
fruiting  scrolls,  from  which  one  might  possibly  construe  the  Biblical 
version  of  the  Spirit  of  Evil  lurking  beneath  the  Tree  of  Life,  or  as 
Milton,  in  describing  the  Tempter  addressing  Eve  in  Paradise  Lost, 
says — 

About  the  mossy  trunk  I  wound  me  soon ; 
For  high  from  ground,  the  branches  would  require 
Thy  utmost  reach,  or  Adam's,  round  the  tree 
All  other  beasts  that  saw,  with  like  desire 
Longing  and  envying  stood,  but  could  not  reach. 

The  sculpture  of  the  two  other  crosses  (which  are  now  little 
more  than  half  the  height  of  the  one  described)  is  equally  dexterously 
wrought  in  the  millstone  grit  of  the  neighbourhood.  As  time  wore 
on  towards  the  tenth  century  there  was  a  gradual  debasement  in  this 
class  of  work,  both  in  idea  and  execution.  The  Guiseley  cross  is  an 
example  of  late  work,  as  appears  also  the  portion  of  a  cross  found  in 
the  river  in  Ilkley,  in  June,  1889.  This  stone  is  thirty-two  inches 
long,  about  ten  inches  broad  and  six  inches  thick,  and  has  been 
sculptured  on  all  four  sides.  One  of  the  sides  bears  the  design  of 
an  interlaced  monster,  and  may  equally  with  above  symbolize  the 
temptation  that  ever  lurks  in  the  path  of  the  righteous. 

*  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  these  unique  crosses  are  still  exposed  to  the  deteriorating 
effects  of  the  weather.  If  no  suitable  place  can  be  found  for  them  inside  the  church, 
a  special  annex  might  be  erected  for  their  better  preservation,  as  has  been  done  at 
Ruthwell.  A  small  sketch  of  the  crosses  appears  at  the  end  of  this  chapter. 


199 

On  the  Danish  irruption  in  870  nearly  ;ill  the  religious  houses 
in  Yorkshire  and  other  parts  of  England  that  were  overrun  were  more 
or  less  destroyed.  The  Archbishop  of  York  fled  into  Wharfedale, 
and  according  to  Simeon  of  Durham  remained  some  time  in  exile  at 
Addingham.  The  Danes  came  up  the  valley  and  every  Christian 
temple  was  demolished.  The  Rev.  Daniel  Haigh  contends  they 
were  so  firmly  established  in  this  part  of  Wharfedale  that  Ilkley 
became  one  of  the  northern  mints  under  the  Danish  Kings.*  The 
Anglo-Saxon  population  must  have  taken  refuge,  like  the  Celts  had 
before  them,  on  the  surrounding  heights.  The  frequent  occurrence 
of  Anglian  and  Celtic  place-names  on  conjoined  ground  gives  some 
credence  to  this  belief.  The  old  boundaries  also  do  not  seem  to 
have  been  disturbed  through  the  successive  ownerships  of  Celt, 
Roman,  Saxon,  Dane,  and  Norman,  and  even  to  our  own  time  we 
find  the  ancient  tribal  divisions  retained  as  township  and  parish 
boundaries,  fixed  as  some  of  these  divisions  were  by  the  oldest  tribes 
of  which  we  have  any  certain  knowledge.  I  find  evidence  of  these 
primitive  tribal  lines  having  been  retained  everywhere  in  Wharfedale. 
The  Goidelic-Celtic  bealach,  a  passage  from  one  place  to  another,  a 
boundary,  occurs  in  the  form  of  black,  as  in  Black  Hill,  Black  Beck, 
Black  Pasture,  and  the  like,  in  every  parish  in  Wharfedale,  a  most 
significant  fact,  which  has  not  been  hitherto  noticed.  It  is  usually 
found  upon  high  ground  in  outlying  parts  of  the  township  or  parish, 
and  always  upon  or  close  to  the  present  boundaries.  In  the  same 
territories  we  likewise  often  meet  with  the  Anglo-Saxon  mearc,  Norm- 
French,  merche,  a  boundary,  in  the  modernised  form  of  March  or 
Marsh,  and  always  contiguous  to  the  same  Celtic  tribal  lines,  which 
have  been  commonly  adopted  as  parochial  or  other  divisions  to  our 
own  day. 

When  the  Romans  left  Ilkley,  the  old  tribal  divisions  which  had 
never  been  really  extinguished  by  Roman  rule,  were  again  renewed, 
and  it  became  the  universal  law  of  all  subsequent  peoples  not  to 
disturb  the  old  landmarks.  Stone  pillars,  trees,  particularly  the  ash 
and  thorn,  wells,  and  rocks,  especially  those  which  had  some  sacred 
or  important  association,  were  set  up  or  adopted  as  the  defining  marks, 
and  so  rigidly  did  the  Teutonic  nations  abide  by  them  that  anyone  who 
removed  or  destroyed  these  old  boundaries  was  condemned  to  be 
buried  up  to  the  neck  and  then  ploughed  to  death. 

As  with  the  boundaries  so  with  husbandry.  The  old  British  and 
Roman  methods  of  cultivation  were  retained  by  the  after-comers. 
I  have  pointed  out  the  early  prevalence  of  the  three-field  system  of 
cropping  in  Wharfedale,  that  is  each  field  bore  two  crops  of  a 
different  kind  in  turn,  and  then  lay  fallow.  This  was  not  the  plan 
followed  by  the  northern  nations  of  the  Continent,  such  as  the  Angles, 

*   Yorks.  A  rch.  Jl. ,  iv.  374. 


200 

Saxons,  and  Danes,  but  it  was  a  system  which  is  well-known  to  have 
prevailed  in  Southern  Germany,  and  the  parts  affected  by  Roman 
intercourse.  Yet  it  is  still  a  moot-point  whether  the  Romans 
introduced  it  into  England  or  found  it  already  here.  Ilkley,  however 
would  seem  to  have  been  a  two-field  township.  In  the  reign  of  the 
Confessor  we  find  that  it  was  held  by  a  noble  thane  named  Gamel. 
He  had  three  carucates  of  land  to  be  taxed  which  were  worked  by  two 
ploughs,  that  is  the  taxed  carucate  consisted  of  eighty  acres,  assuming 
that  there  were  240  acres  in  each  field,  which  there  must  have  been 
if  a  two-field  manor,  240  annually  fallow  and  240  tilled.  These, 
divided  by  three,  give  eighty  acres  as  the  normal  area  of  a  geldable 
carucate  in  a  two-field  manor ;  though  if  the  land,  as  was  evideatly 
the  case  at  Ilkley,  could  be  worked  by  two  ploughs  instead  of  the 
usual  three  ploughs  there  were  120  acres  to  each  plough,  being  the 
normal  taxable  carucate  in  a  three-field  manor.  Canon  Taylor 
attributes  these  anomalies  between  the  number  of  ploughs  and 
carucates,  either  to  the  lightness  of  the  soil  (enabling  the  work  to  be 
clone  by  two-thirds  the  number  of  ploughs),  to  the  exceptional  value 
of  the  land,  or  to  favorable  geldation,  as  seems  to  have  been  the  case 
with  certain  monastic  lands. 


into  the  Roman  fosse  (as  it  does  still)  below  the  ancient  church, 
which  at  that  time  had  a  very  small  congregation  and  looked  little 
better  than  an  Irish  cottar's  dwelling,  with  its  mud  floor  and  shaky 
old  furniture.  Higher  up  was  the  old  corn-mill,  originally  erected 
early  in  the  twelfth  century ;  in  later  days  it  was  a  saw-mill,  with  its 
ever-murmuring  water-wheel  and  the  crystal  pond  beside  it.  The 
accompanying  illustration  taken  from  West  View  about  thirty  years 
ago,  shews  the  old  mill  and  pond  close  to  the  left  of  the  road.  The 
heather  at  that  time  came  quite  down  into  Brook  Street  and  spread 
itself  in  many  places  where  are  now  macadamised  avenues  and  busy 
thoroughfares. 

The  famous  Cow  and  Calf  rocks  were  then  in  a  wild  spot ; 
indeed,  rarely  visited,  and  numbers  of  hawks  and  jackdaws  used  to 
nest  there  regularly.  Doubtless  in  former  times  these  crag  sides  were 
the  lurking  places  of  the  wolf  and  savage  wild-cat.  In  the  Ilkley 
registers  so  late  as  the  year  1691  I  find  rewards  were  paid  for  the 
capture  of  wild-cats  which  then  infested  the  parish.  In  that  year 
Thomas  Smith  is  paid  Sd.  for  "a  Wild  catt  head,"  and  for  two  more 
to  Thomas  Stead  the  churchwardens  pay  is.  4d.  This  animal 
infested  the  gills  in  the  higher  parts  of  the  dale  down  even  to  the 
present  century.*  The  Cow  and  Calf  rocks  have  a  long  and  notable 
history,  which  will  be  dealt  with  in  the  next  chapter.  When  our 
beloved  Queen  was  crowned  in  1838,  a  great  fire  blazed  on  these 
famous  stones,  and  Ilkley  I  am  told,  was  "illuminated."  But  the 
illuminations  were  of  a  singularly  humble  character.  Some  of  the 
residents  hung  out  a  lamp  or  two,  while  the  shop-windows  sported  an 
extra  candle,  much  to  the  astonishment  of  the  youthful  urchins  of 
the  town,  who  knew  exactly  how  much  light  each  little  window  was 
wont  to  boast.  A  few  farthing  candles  adorned  the  tops  of  props  in 
the  still  June  night,  and  the  late  Mr.  Hezekiah  Dobson  told  me  he 
well  remembered  seeing  one  of  these  fine  illuminants  set  up  on  the 
Addingham  road  guide-post,  doing  full  honor  to  the  occasion.  The 
humble  light,  however,  was  not  suffered  to  run  its  course,  for  a 
niggardly  man  soon  came  along  saying  he  thought  it  a  piece  of  rash 
extravagance  in  such  a  place,  and  forthwith  tore  it  down  and  marched 
off  with  it  without  further  explanation.  The  familiar  Cow  Pastures 
also  was  a  quiet  lonely  place,  at  this  time  often  resorted  to  by  bands 
of  gipsies,  and  it  is  little  more  than  forty  years  ago,  or  just  before 
the  land  was  enclosed,  a  lady  visitor  was  found  murdered  on  this 
spot,  the  crime  it  was  generally  supposed  having  been  perpetrated  by 
gipsies  intent  on  gain.  Such  facts  seem  hard  to  believe  in  these 
later  days  when  the  same  hill-sides  are  covered  with  villas  and 
pleasant  gardens,  and  visitors  are  seen  moving  in  all  directions 

*  I   have  no  doubt  that  Cat  Gill  near  Bolton  Abbey,   is  named  from   the   same 
circumstance. 


203 

enjoying  the  bracing  moorland   breezes  and   magnificent  scenery  of 
this  favorite  spa. 

The  view  prefacing  this  chapter  of  the  Old  Ilkley  I  have 
described,  is  reproduced  from  a  scarce  engraving  in  possession  of  my 
father-in-law,  Mr.  Win.  Butterfield,  son  of  Mr.  Samuel  Butterfield,  who 
was  born  at  Hsholt  in  Otley  parish,  in  1801,  and  whose  kindred  have 
resided  in  the  neighbourhood  for  centuries.  Of  the  same  stock  was 
Mr.  Wm.  Butterfield,  a  well-known  Ilkley  character  in  his  time,  who 
rented  the  old  White  Wells  on  the  moor-side  at  Ilkley  in  1820,  and 
whose  descendants  in  the  third  generation,  are  still  there.*  The 
bath-rooms  and  receptacles  at  the  White  House  remain  as  originally 
constructed,  and  the  stables  beneath,  though  not  now  used  for  this 
purpose,  are  also  the  same.  Formerly  visitors  who  were  too  feeble 
to  walk,  rode  up  from  the  village  on  the  backs  of  ponies  or  as 
which  were  kept  in  the  stable  named,  while  the  visitor  enjoyed  his  or 
her  invigorating  cold  bath.  The  Ilkley  registers  for  August,  1793, 
record  a  singular  accident  to  a  girl  aged  nine,  who  was  drowned  in 
one  of  these  baths  whilst  attempting  to  bathe  herself.  One  of  the 
baths  is  beautifully  draped  with  an  old  growth  of  wild  golden- 
saxifrage,  and  other  water-loving  plants,  and  looks  very  much  like  a 
mountain  pot-hole.  The  water  is  deliciously  clear,  cold  and  bracing, 
and  is  derived  from  the  ancient  Roman  Spring  above  alluded  to.t 

The  Norman  ravages  at  the  Conquest  turned  those  fruitful  acres 
I  have  mentioned  at  the  close  of  the  last  chapter  into  "waste,"  and 
when  the  Conqueror  bestowed  the  manor  on  his  confederate,  William 
de  Percy,  it  was  of  no  present  value.  The  people  had  nearly  all 
fled  or  were  so  impoverished  they  could  pay  no  taxes,  and  the 
endowed  Saxon  church,  mentioned  in  Domesday,  must  for  a  time 
have  had  few  or  no  worshippers  and  have  been  left  to  neglect  and 
decay. 

The  Archbishop  of  York  had  also  an  unnamed  berewic  in  Ilkley 
parish,  most  probably  Wheatley,  now  Ben  Rhydding,  as  it  lay  contiguous 
to  the  Archbishop's  land  in  Burley,  as  part  of  the  original  manor  of 
Otley.  But  the  manorial  title  to  Ilkley  rested  with  the  Percies,  and 
through  them  to  the  mesne  lords,  De  Kyme  or  Keyme  (the  earliest 
British  term  by  the  way,  for  an  elf  or  fairy,  and  there  were  fairies  in 
plenty  about  the  Ilkley  crags,  as  will  be  learnt  in  the  next  chapter) 
who  are  closely  associated  with  the  history  of  the  beautiful  old  manor 
of  Newton  Kyme,  and  in  the  i3th  century  became  chief  lords  of 
Ilkley  and  patrons  of  the  church.  The  De  Kymes  were  benefactors 

*  In  an  old  guide  to  Ilkley,  printed  at  Knaresbro'  in  1829,  it  is  stated  the  baths 
(then  the  only  ones)  have  been  in  charge  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Butterfield  for  nine  or  ten 
years. 

f  It  is  probably  this  spring  that  is  alluded  to  in  the  /)>•  /in urn  Roll,  yth  Kdw.  II. 
(1314)  in  a  complaint  against  Robert  atte  Welle,  of  likely,  shewing  that  a  house  must 
have  been  here  six  centuries  ago.  Vide  W.  Paley  Baildon  in  Yorks.  Xntrs  and  Queries. 


204 

to  several  of  the  Yorkshire  Cistercian  monasteries,  notably  Fountains, 
Nun  Appleton,  and  Sallay,  and  to  the  latter  they  gave  lands  in  Ilkley. 
Roesa  de  Kyme  was  wife  of  Peter  de  Percy,*  to  whom  Henry  III.,  in 
1250  confirmed  the  grant  of  free  warren  for  ever  in  all  the  demesne 
lands  of  Ilkley,  that  is  the  right  to  keep  and  kill  small  beasts  and 
birds,  such  as  hares,  conies,  partridges,  pheasants,  and  some  add 
quails  and  woodcocks.  Two  years  later,  3yth  Henry  III.,  (1252) 
Ilkley  was  raised  to  the  dignity  of  a  market-town,  as  appears  by  the 
following  hitherto  unpublished  royal  charter  : — 

GRANT   OF   MARKET  AND    FAIR   AT    ILKLEY. 

The  King  to  his  Archbishops  &c  greeting-.  Know  ye  that  we  have  granted  and  by 
this  our  charter  have  confirmed  to  our  beloved  und  trusty  Peter  de  Percy  that  he  and 
his  heirs  may  have  for  ever  a  market  every  week  on  Wednesday  at  his  manor  of  Illeclay 
in  the  County  of  York.  And  that  they  may  have  a  fair  there  every  year  lasting  for  eight 
days  to  wit  on  the  vigil  and  on  the  day  and  the  morrow  of  St.  Luke  the  Evangelist  and 
five  days  following.  Unless  such  market  and  fair  be  to  the  hurt  of  ^neighbouring 
markets  and  fairs.  Wherefore  we  will  &c  with  all  liberties  and  free  customs  to  such 
market  and  fair  belonging.  These  being  witnesses  Ralph  son  of  Nicholas  Gilbert  de 
Segrave,  Master  W  de  Kilkenny  Archdeacon  of  Coventry  John  de  Grey  Robert 
Wallerand  William  de  Grey  William  Gernun,  Robert  de  Norreys,  Walter  de 
Thurkilby  Ralph  de  Bakepuce  Roger  de  Lokinton  and  others.  Given  by  my  hand  at 
Westminster  i  day  of  ffebruary. 

How  long  the  markets  were  continued  at  Ilkley  we  have  no  certain 
knowledge,  but  it  will  be  seen  that  the  charter  conveys  the  usual 
legal  phrase  of  permanency  in  that  it  is  confirmed  to  the  heirs  of 
Percy  "for  ever."  Kirkby's  Inquest  shews,  however,  that  in  1284-5 
Sir  Philip  de  Kyme,  Kt,  son  of  Simon  de  Kyme,  by  Rose,  his  wife,f 
was  declared  lord  of  the  manor  of  Ilkley,  holding  it  of  the  heirs  of 
Henry  de  Percy,  and  the  said  Henry  of  the  King  by  Knight  service. 
Robert  de  Percy  then  held  it  in  sub-tenure  of  the  said  Sir  Philip  de 
Kyme,  and  in  1315  the  Nomina  Villarum  states  that  the  Lady  Percy 
and  the  Abbots  of  Sallay  were  then  joint  proprietors  of  the  manor. 
The  last  of  the  Kymes  was  a  heiress  who  married  into  the  Scottish 
house  of  Umfraville,  Earls  of  Angus,  and  in  1363-4,  Gilbert  de 
Umfraville  presents  to  the  church  at  Ilkley.  In  1409  Agnes,  daughter 
and  heir  of  Henry,  son  of  Nicholas  Ward,  of  Agglethorpe,  in  Coverdale, 
and  late  wife  of  Sir  Robert  de  Plessington,  Kt,  was  declared  to  have 
been  seized  of  the  manor  of  Ilkley  for  life.j  Her  descendants,  the 
Plessingtons  appear  to  have  held  it  for  about  half-a-century§  when  it 
came  to  the  Mearings,  and  in  the  yth  Edward  VI.,  (1553)  it  was 
purchased,  together  with  all  fishing  rights  in  the  river,  by  John 
Middleton,  of  the  family  who  for  eight  centuries  have  been  connected 
with  Middleton,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  valley,  and  who  retained 
the  Ilkley  manorial  rights  to  our  own  day. 

*  See  Burton's  Man.  Ebor.,  p.  173.         f  Ibid,  p.  278. 
J  Harrison's  Gilling   West,  p.  253. 

§  See  Nicolas'  Testamenta  Vestusta  (1826),  p.  276;  also  Yorks.  County  Mag.  (1891), 
p.  272  ;  also  Feet  of  Fines, 


205 

I  have  referred  to  the  sad  havoc  wrought  in  Wharfedale  by  the 
invasion  of  the  Scots.  In  1297  Sir  Wm.  Wallace  gained  such  a 
victory  over  the  English  at  Kildean  Ford,  near  Stirling,  as  is  hardly 
parallelled  in  history,  and  with  that  patriotism  which  animates  the 
Highland  breast  throughout  the  world,  the  good  northern  folk  have 
raised  a  monument  in  his  honor,  which  is  one  of  the  sights  of 
Scotland.  The  event  is  one  which  has  a  great  bearing  on  Wharfedale 
and  Border  history,  and  this  sanguinary  and  protracted  war  is  often 
referred  to  in  the  Compotus  of  Bolton  Abbey.  The  noble  Wallace 
Monument  stands  on  the  Abbey  Craig  near  Stirling,  the  foundation- 
stone  having  been  laid  on  the  anniversary  of  the  Battle  of  Bannockburn 
(June  24th  1861).  It  was  a  red-letter  day  in  Scottish  annals.  Upwards 
of  80,000  persons  joined  in  the  procession  to  the  grand  old  Crag, 
carrying  with  them  the  well-authenticated  swords  of  Wallace  and 
Bruce,  and  other  national  relics,  while  the  Duke  of  Athole,  Grand 
Master  Mason  of  Scotland,  performed  the  ceremony  of  laying  the 
stone  with  full  masonic  honors.  In  1298  the  English  determined  to 
avenge  their  defeat  and  a  subsidy  was  raised  for  the  purpose,  and  the 
Bolton  Abbey  accounts  for  that  year  shew  that  Ilkley  contributed 
26s.  8d.,  and  Long  Preston  33*.  40!.  in  aid  of  that  war.  The  result  is 
matter  of  common  history. 

As  a  consequence  of  the  English  disaster  at  Bannockburn  in 
1314,  Ilkley  a  few  years  later  was  invaded  by  the  furious  victors, 
cattle  being  carried  off,  houses  wrecked,  goods  stolen,  and  the  people 
left  in  such  a  pitiable  plight  they  could  not  pay  their  accustomed  rents. 
The  living  of  the  church  fell  from  £26  135.  in  1290  to  26  marks,  or 
^17  6s.  8d.  in  1318,  when  the  Arbhbishop  of  York  sent  in  his  Return 
to  the  King.  It  was  a  long  time  before  things  recovered  their 
wonted  prosperity.  In  1378  the  Poll  Tax  returns  shew  there  were 
twenty-five  married  couples  and  eighteen  single  persons  above  the 
age  of  sixteen  living  at  Ilkley ,  while  at  Middleton  over  the  water, 
there  were  thirteen  married  couples  and  twenty-three  single  persons 
at  the  same  time,  not  a  very  marked  difference  between  the  two 
places  at  that  era,  though  what  a  contrast  they  present  at  the  present 
day!  In  1378  there  was  but  one  inn  at  Ilkley,  in  all  probability  the 
Rose  and  Crown,  opposite  the  church-gates  (of  which  I  give  a  view 
before  it  was  rebuilt),  though  the  Wheat  Sheaf  has  a  strong  claim  for 
precedence,  the  sign  being  derived  from  the  old  crest  of  the  Middletons, 
a  garbe  or.  The  "Rose  and  Crown"  was  one  of  the  badges  of  the 
House  of  Lancaster,  and  adopted  by  John  of  Gaunt,  lord  of  the 
Honor  and  Forest  of  Knaresbro',  who  died  in  1399,  and  whose 
kinsman,  Sir  Robert  de  Plessington,  Kt.,  married  Agnes  Ward,  lady 
of  the  manor  of  Ilkley,  as  before  narrated.*  An  old  hostelery,  at 
Bainbridge,  in  Wensleydale,  which  is  said  to  have  had  some  Norman 

*  See  the  author's  Richmotulshire,  p.  256. 


206 

traces,  has  borne  the  sign  of  Rose  and  Crown  from  time  immemorial, 
and  singularly  one  of  the  twenty-five  families  then  (1378)  living  at 
Ilkley  hailed  from  Bainbridge,  and  was  the  boot  and  shoe-maker  for 
all  the  country-side.* 

In  the  old  parchment  volume  at  Bolton  Abbey,  I  have  before 
quoted,  I  find  that  Ilkley  was  called  upon  to  contribute  its  quota  of 
men  to  suppress  the  Jacobite  rising  in  1715  ;  the  names  of  Mr. 
Reginald  Heber,  John  Crawshaw,  and  Edward  Bowling  or  John  Field, 
being  set  down  as  men  likely  to  serve. 


ROSE   AND   CROWN    HOTEL,    ILKLEY. 


Let  us  now  turn  to  the  old  church  of  the  parish ;  the  wall 
enclosing  the  ancient  kirk-garth  having,  I  find,  been  entirely  pulled 
down  and  rebuilt  in  1849.  At  this  time  the  Rev.  Robert  Collyer, 
the  well-known  American  divine,  worked  as  a  blacksmith  at 
Ilkley,  and  made  the  new  gates  for  the  churchyard,  at  a  cost  to 
the  parish  of  ^7  los.  There  was  also  a  blacksmith's  bill  from 
Sampson  Speight  for  255.  8d. ;  the  Speights  having  dwelled  in  this 

*  I  do  not  know  which  is  the  oldest  authenticated  inn  still  existing-  in  Yorkshire, 
but  in  Lancashire  the  sign  of  the  Seven  Stars,  in  Shudehill,  Manchester,  is  proved  by 
the  license  records  preserved  in  Lancaster  Castle  to  have  been  an  inn  since  1350-60. 
The  Blue  Posts,  at  Stockton-on-Tees,  is  said  to  date  from  1485  (see  also  page  52). 


neighbourhood  and  over  the  hill  in  the  adjoining  parish  of  Kildwick 
from  the  time  of  the  Poll  Tax  of  A.D.  1378.  [See  also  "Speight 
I  low,"  under  BOLTON  ABBEY].  The  old  church  at  Ilkley,  dedicated 
tu  All  Saints  (see  p.  32),*  is  interesting  in  many  ways.  It  stands 
within  the  old  Roman  castrmn,  like  the  old  church  at  Aldborough, 
and  probably  on  the  same  site  successively  and  alternately  occupied 
by  heathen  altar  and  Christian  temple  since  the  days  of  Agricola,  the 
Roman  vanquisher  of  Ilkley,  eighteen  centuries  ago.  The  existence 
of  this  building  on  such  a  site  may  prove  an  exception  to  the 
received  opinion  of  many  authorities  that  the  Anglo-Saxons  did  not 
occupy  the  sites  previously  held  by  the  Romans,  but  preferred  to 
colonize  a  new  site ;  at  any  rate  for  a  long  time  after  their  first 
coming.  Here,  where  the  mother  church  now  is,  undoubtedly  stood 
the  church  of  her  Saxon  forefathers,  as  mentioned  in  the  Domesday 
record.  What  was  here  before  is  left  to  conjecture  ;  perhaps  only  that 
trinity  of  beautiful  preaching-crosses  now  in  the  churchyard  and 
bearing  the  mission  of  the  evangelists,  as  described  in  the  last 
chapter.  Or  there  may  have  been  a  still  earlier  Celtic  or  Roman 
church  similar  to  that  discovered  in  1892  within  the  Roman  fortress 
at  Silchester,  or  like  that  at  Aldborough,  where  the  foundations  of 
the  Roman  basilica  (doubtless  afterwards  a  Christian  temple),  still 
exist. 

The  oldest  existing  part  of  the  present  church  is  the  south 
doorway,  unless  we  are  to  take  into  account  the  massive,  even 
cyclopean  character  of  the  masonry  of  the  tower,  with  its  diagonal 
tooling,  some  of  the  stones  of  which  are  above  three  feet  by  two 
feet.  One  I  measured  is  nearly  two  feet  square  (or  cubical,  like  the 
masonry  of  the  Roman  Wall),  and  some  of  them  are  curiously  marked ; 
while  the  interior  walls  of  the  church  seem  to  have  been  built  of  the 
Norman  or  Early  English  irregular  undressed  stones  at  the  rebuilding 
and  enlargement  of  the  church  shortly  before  the  Reformation.  But 
the  original  church,  erected  on  such  a  site  and  under  such  an 
influence  as  I  have  explained,  would  have  been  of  the  usual  Celtic 
type,  with  square-ended  presbytery  at  the  east  end  and  baptistery  at 
the  west,  perhaps  altered  into  the  Roman  basilican  form  after  the 
preaching  and  reconversions  of  Paulinus.  It  must,  however,  have 
been  a  very  primitive  building,  without  aisles  or  tower,  and  possessing 
no  architectural  substance  or  beauty  worth  preserving,  otherwise 
some  portions,  particularly  the  doorway,  would  have  been  retained 
when  the  church  was  re-erected  in  the  time  of  King  John.  It  has 
been  enlarged  and  extended  eastwards,  and  there  seems  to  have  been 
no  tower  until  the  i5th  century.  The  principal  entrance,  always  the 

Although  the  church  is  dedicated  to  All  Saints,  Ilkley  Feast  is  reckoned  from  the 
Festival  of  the  Exaltation  of  the  Holy  Cross  (discovered  by  the  Roman  Knij>res-. 
Helena),  being  the  first  Sunday  after  Sept.  I4th. 


208 

most  ornate  and  seductive  part  of  the  church,  dates  from  about  A.D. 
1200,  and  is  of  somewhat  unusual  construction.  The  arch  is  pointed 
but  there  are  no  shafts  ;  the  jambs  and  arch  being  formed  of  one 
continuous  plain  and  deeply-cut  moulding  of  two  orders,  having  a 
corresponding  double  row  of  dog-tooth  ornament.  The  bases  are 
modern,  otherwise  the  doorway  is  quaintly  original.  In  1378  the 
rectorial  profits  were  appropriated  to  the  Prior  and  Convent  of 
Hexham,  and  a  vicarage  was  ordained.*  The  monks  seem  to 
have  done  nothing  for  a  long  time  towards  improving  the  fabric  of 
the  church.  Having  appropriated  the  great  tithes  of  corn  and  hay, 
they  left  the  church  to  take  care  of  itself,  and  the  impoverished 
parson  to  squabble  with  his  parishioners  over  his  tenth  of  ducks  and 
geese  and  pigeons,  fruit,  vegetables,  &c.,  and  even  the  common 
nettle,  then  cultivated,  was  not  despised,  but  paid  tithe  with  the  rest. 
The  nave  arcade  is  late,  and  has  had  originally  three  arches, 
and  a  fourth  has  recently  been  added  eastwards.  They  have  pointed 
arches  and  octagonal  columns,  with  capitals,  one  of  which  is  rather 
oddly  moulded  in  a  semi-Norman  style.  A  piscina  in  the  south  aisle 
marks  the  original  extension  of  this  aisle  to  the  east,  and  it  has  had 
an  altar  dedicated  to  St.  Nicholas.!  This  chapel  was  founded  by 
Wm.  Middleton,  Esq.,  by  will  dated  1474,  and  endowed  by  him  with 
rents  of  certain  tenements,  &c.,  in  Ilkley,  and  a  cottage-residence  of 
the  chantry-priest,  the  whole  yielding  in  1538,  when  it  was  dissolved, 
an  annual  revenue  of  £4.  ys.  od.  There  is  a  finely-conditioned 
life-size  cumbent  effigy,  cross-legged,  but  in  a  bad  position,  concealed 
by  modem  pews  in  a  plain,  low,  flat-arched  recess  near  this 
piscina.  The  recess  is  quite  out  of  keeping  with  the  character  of 
the  effigy,  which  has  doubtless  at  one  time  reposed  beneath  a 
crocketed  canopy  of  the  best  period  of  Decorated  architecture.  The 
effigy,  as  appears  by  the  once  painted  arms  on  the  shield — argent, 
fretty  sable,  a  canton  of  the  last — represents  a  Middleton,  clothed  in 
chain-mail  cap-a-pie,  with  surcoat  reaching  to  the  feet.  On  his  left 
side  is  a  plain  cross-hilted  sword,  sheathed,  partly  broken  away.  The 
shield  is  rounded  and  not  flat.  The  sollerets  have  prick-spurs,  and 
the  knight  wears  mail  chausses,  not  with  jambs  or  shin-plates  (as 
represented  by  Whitaker),  and  the  knee-pieces  have  small  escutcheons, 
originally  painted.  The  effigy  is  characteristic  of  about  A.D.  1280-90, 
and  probably  intended  to  commemorate  Sir  Peter  de  Middleton, 
father  of  Sir  Adam  de  Middleton,  who  according  to  the  Compotus  of 
Bolton  Abbey  died  ca.  1315. 

*  See.  Lawton's  Collections,  p.  256-7  ;  also  Surtees  Soc.  Pub.,  xlvi.,  p.  147-51. 

)•  St.  Nicholas  was  born  at  Lycia,  a  province  in  Asia  Minor,  and  died  in  A.D.  342. 
He  was  the  patron  of  children,  the  original  Santa  Claus,  gracious  and  kind  to  them,  and 
from  his  own  infancy  was  a  model  of  innocence  and  virtue.  In  manhood  he  was 
Archbishop  of  Myra,  and  was  one  of  those  who  attended  the  great  Council  of  Nice  (see 
page  30).  There  was  also  a  chantry  dedicated  to  this  saint  at  Skipton. 


209 

In  1830  the  church  was  partly  restored,  and  again  in  1861  a 
considerable  restoration  took  place.  The  nave  and  aisles  were  then 
lengthened  eastwards  about  sixteen  feet,  and  the  chancel,  with  the 
south  wall,  entirely  rebuilt.  The  old  piscina  from  the  Middleton 
Chapel  was  set  in  the  south  wall  of  the  chancel,  but  why  this  was 
done  is  not  very  clear.  A  vestry  was  added  in  1880.  In  1854  £2 
IQS.  was  expended  in  painting  and  gilding  the  clock-dial.  The  brass 
tablet  at  the  west  end  of  the  church  stating  that  the  church  was 
restored  in  1882  refers  to  the  insertion  of  the  clerestory  windows  and 
the  removal  of  plaster  from  the  walls,  with  the  addition  of  a  new 


CHURCH    STREET,    ILKLEY.    IN    1880. 

(  The  old   Vicarage,  mnv  drntolished,  is  in  front  t<>  the  left.) 


organ.  The  north  aisle  appears  to  be  early  i6th  century,  having 
plain  square-headed  windows  of  three  lights  each,  without  foils.  The 
clerestory  has  windows  only  on  the  south  side,  which  have  square- 
heads of  four  lights.  The  late  alterations  at  the  west  end  are 
observable  in  the  odd  position  of  the  tower-arch,  which  .appears  at 
unequal  distances  between  the  north  and  south  walls,  due  to  the 
addition  of  the  south  aisle.  The  latter  has  plain  reproductions  of 
Perpendicular  trefoil-headed  lights.  At  the  west  end  of  the  north 
aisle  is  a  rather  good  specimen  of  Jacobean  carved  oak  screen-work, 


216 

which  bears  the  initials  and  date  I.W.  1633.  Some  oak  panel-work 
of  similar  age  is  on  the  south  side.  There  are  numerous  memorial 
tablets  and  stained  lights  in  the  church.  The  five-light  east  window, 
depicting  the  Crucifixion,  was  erected  to  the  memory  of  Samuel 
Margerison,  a  native  of  Ilkley,  who  died  in  1858.  In  the  Household 
Book  of  Lord  Clifford  for  1510  I  find  an  entry  of  4d.  expended  on  a 
"plowe  light  in  Ylkley."  Can  this  have  reference  to  a  monster  candle 
placed  on  the  altar  of  the  church  on  Plough  Monday?  In  some 
places  it  was  customary  to  ring  certain  bells  on  Plough  Monday,  as 
well  as  on  the  occasions  when  country-folk  were  called  to  seed-sowing, 
harvesting,  &c. 

In  the  chancel  is  a  stained-glass  insertion  to  the  memory  of 
the  wife  of  the  late  Rev.  John  Snowdon,  vicar,  who  died  in  1853, 
and  of  Elizabeth,  their  eldest  child,  who  died  in  1844.  In  tne  south 
wall  of  the  chancel  is  a  beautiful  window  in  memory  of  Joseph 
Ravenscroft  Elsey,  who  died  in  1858,  also  of  Emma,  his  wife,  who 
died  in  1884,  and  of  Jane  Frances,  their  daughter,  who  died  in  1886. 
Also  on  the  south  side  of  the  chancel  is  a  stained  window  in  memory 
of  Mary,  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Geo.  Rowley,  D.D.,  who  died  in  1866. 
At  the  east  end  of  the  south  aisle  is  a  stained  window  representing 
the  Good  Samaritan,  in  memory  of  Dr.  Edmund  Smith,  of  Ilkley 
Wells  House,  who  died  in  1864.  The  west  window  of  the  tower 
(repaired  in  1850)  is  of  three  beautiful  lights  depicting  the  Ascension, 
&c.,  and  dedicated  to  the  memory  of  Benjamin  Briggs  Popplewell,  of 
Beacon  Hill,  who  died  in  187*.  In  the  south  aisle  at  the  west  end 
near  the  font  is  a  stained  window  representing  Christ  blessing  little 
children,  and  dedicated  to  the  memory  of  the  Rev.  John  Snowdon, 
M.A.,  vicar  of  Ilkley  for  36  years,  who  died  in  February,  1878,  aged 
72.  At  the  west  end  of  the  north  aisle  in  a  well-designed  window, 
with  brass  beneath  inscribed  to  the  memory  of  a  respected  son  of  the 
vicar,  Jasper  Whitfield  Snowdon,  historian  and  expositor  of  change- 
ringing,  who  died  in  1885,  aged  41  ;  the  window  having  been  erected 
at  the  sole  cost  of  the  change-ringers  of  the  country.  Mr.  Snowdon 
was  widely  known  by  his  published  works  on  campanology,  and  he 
also  contributed  to  various  magazines  articles  on  this  and  kindred 
subjects.  He  was  the  originator  of  the  Ilkley  Amateur  Society  of 
Change-Ringers,  and  on  the  formation  of  the  Yorkshire  Association 
of  Change-Ringers  in  1876  he  was  elected  first  president,  a  position 
which  he  held  until  the  day  of  his  death. 

On  the  walls  of  the  chancel  are  eight  small  old  brasses,  crudely 
engraved  with  inscriptions  and  quaint  devices  of  arms,  &c>,  most  of 
them  to  members  of  the  Heber  family  of  Hollin  Hall.  They  date 
from  1633  to  1687.  One  of  them  is  couched  in  terms  of  superfervid 
piety,  remarkable  even  for  that  age  of  religious  zeal : 

Here  lyeth  the  body  of  Christofer  Heber,  second  sonne  to  Master  Reginald  Heber, 
who  died  the  8  of  May,  1649,  his  age  26.     For  I  am  perswaded  that  neither  death,  nor 


21  I 

lilr,  m>r  angel-,  nor  prineipalitie--,  nor  powers  nor  thinge-  present  nor  t  hinge-  (o  conn-, 
nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor  ;in\  other  creature  -hall  he  able  to  separate  nie  from  the  love 
o!  (  iod  which  i--  in  C'hrist  Je-.ii--  our  Lord. 

( 'an  language  go  further  than  this?  On  the  north  wall  of  the  chancel 
there  are  also  two  tiny  brasses  to  the  Hodgsons  (one  vicar  of  Ilkley 
whose  name  is  spelt  Hoghon  on  the  brass)  dated  1639  and  1640. 
There  was  formerly  on  the  chancel  floor  (and  since  removed  to  the 
Ilkley  Museum)  a  palimpsest  inscription  on  brass,  the  obverse 
dedicated  to  a  family  named  Robinson,  date  1562,  and  the  reverse 
engraved  in  large  black  letter  to  John  Reynald,  prebend  of  Becking- 
ham,  Southwell  Minster,  1492-4,  afterwards  prebend  of  Stillington 
and  Archdeacon  of  Cleveland  1499-1506.*  In  the  body  of  the  church 
on  the  north  side  are  several  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  century 
brasses  to  members  of  the  family  of  Joseph  Watkinson,  Wilfrid 
Lawson,  Godfrey  Lawson  and  Edward  Boiling.  In  the  south  aisle 
is  a  tablet,  indicted  in  Latin  to  the  memory  of  William  Middleton, 
of  Middleton  Lodge,  who  died  in  1800,  in  his  eighteenth  year.  In 
this  aisle  are  memorial  tablets  to  the  families  of  Lister,  Hauxworth, 
and  Beanlands,  who  are  of  long  standing  in  Ilkley.f  On  the  north 
wall  of  the  chancel  is  a  marble  tablet  in  memory  of  the  Rev.  Henry 
Leathley  Armitage,  M.A.,  of  Osmaston,  Derbyshire,  who  died  in 
1851.  Another  tablet  in  the  north  aisle  commemorates  David 
Wolryche  Stansfeld,  who  for  many  years  devoted  himself  unweariedly 
to  the  improvement  of  the  church  and  the  welfare  of  the  parish.  He 
died  at  Leamington  in  1889,  aged  sixty-eight  years.  Such  are  the 
many  and  various  family  memorials  in  the  restored  church. 

Many  are  the  simple  inscriptions  too,  of  bygone  parish  worthies 
in  the  old  churchyard,  as  well  as  of  those  who  in  feeble  health  have 
come  from  a  distance  and  found  a  last  resting-place  in  this  historic 
God's  acre.  But  happily  the  deaths  of  strangers  is  infinitesimal  when 
compared  with  the  thousands  who  annually  visit  the  spa  and  reap 
renewed  health  and  vigor  from  a  sojourn  amongst  the  grand  bracing 
moors.  It  is  a  common  saying  in  the  district  that  a  walk  on  the 
Ilkley  moors  is  worth  a  bottle  of  the  best  champagne.  But  probably 
most  folk  would  prefer  the  climb  to  the  liquor,  which  reminds  me  of 
a  "climbing"  story  told  by  an  Ilkley  lodging-house  keeper  who  had 
just  received  an  old  Scotch  acquaintance  for  a  visitor.  The  host 
remarked  at  bed-time.  "Now,  take  a  wee  drop  more  before  you 
go!"  "Na,  na,"  answered  the  Gael,  "I'm  in  a  new  lodgin',  ye  see, 
an'  I'm  no  vera  weel  acquainted  wi'  the  stairs."  A  very  wise  and 
canny  precaution  of  the  Scot! 

*  See  the  Antiquary,  vol.  xxviii.,  p.  61. 

f  The  Beanlands  have  resided  in  Ilkley  from  the  beginning  of  the  iyth  century. 
William  Beanlnnds,  who  married  Mary  Stead  in  1632,  had  a  large  family  of  sons  and 
daughters,  who  arc  mentioned  in  the  will  of  George  Beanlands,  of  Ryecroft,  in  the 
parish  of  Bingley.  Benjamin,  one  of  the  son-  ol  William  Beanlands,  married  Mary 
daughter  of  Captain  Thos.  Heber.  See  Surtees  Soc.  Pub.,  vol.  xl.,  p.  222. 


212 

Among  the  old  churchwardens'  accounts,  which  begin  with  the 
year  1618,  and  which  I  have  in  various  places  quoted,  there  is  an 
interesting  terrier  or  register  of  the  various  possessions  of  the  church 
in  1672,  which  I  will  print  in  full: 

A  TERRIER  OF  ALL  THE  GLEBE  LAND,  TITHES,  OFFERINGS  AND  OTHER 
ECCLESIASTICAL  DUES  BELONGING  THE  VICARAGE  OR  PARISH  CHURCH  OF  ILKLEY, 
IN  THE  DIOCESE  OF  YORK,  DELIVERED  IN  AT  THE  VISITATION  OF  THE  REVEREND 
FATHER  IN  GOD,  RICHARD  [STERNE]  BY  DIVINE  PROVIDENCE  LORD  ARCHBISHOP  OF 
YORK. 
ist.  A  small  house  and  g-arden  adjoining-,  value  about  two  pounds  and  ten  shillings  per 

annum. 

2nd.     A  moiety  or  part  of  a  farm  in  Netherdale.     Rent  five  pounds  and  thirteen  shillings. 
3rd.      A  customary  duty  upon  every  hall  of  sixpence  each  and  one  penny  eggs,  and 

upon  every  house  of  threepence  each  and   one  penny  eggs,   and  upon  every 

pauper's  dwelling-house  of  two-pence  each. 

Every  person  of  the  age  of  sixteen  pay  two-pence  each  as  communicants.     Two 

gardens  in  Ilkley  a  penny  each,  and  every  corn-mill  a  composition. 
4th.     The  tithe  in  kind  of  pigs,  calves,  swarms  of  bees,  goslings,  foals,  rape,  wool  and 

lamb,  half-a-one  at  five  and  a  whole  one  the  second  best  at  six,  deducting  in  the 

same  proportion  for  what  is  short  of  ten  when  six  or  upwards,  as  is  taken  for  each 

under  five. 
6th.     A  small  composition  for  hay  for  all  lands  on  the  south  side  of  the  river  Wharfe 

and  for  three  farms  on  the  north  side  thereof. 
7th.     The   surplice  dues  as  fees  for  breaking  the  ground  in   the  churchyard.       One 

shilling  offerings  for  each  woman  after  child-birth.     Eight  pence  publication  of 

banns  of  marriage.     Sixpence  marriage  by  banns,  one  shilling  by  licence.     Ten 

shillings  mortuaries  according  to  Act  of  Parliament, 

As  witness  our  hands  :     Wilfred  Lawson, 
Anno  Dm.  1672.          John  Breary, 


-T,,  {Churchwardens. 

1  homas  Jackson, 

William  Holms, 
Robert  Falkiner,  John  Holms,  Michael  Hudson,  Christopher 
Hodgson,  senior,  Overseers  for  ye  Poor. 

The  old  Ilkley  inhabitants  were  slow  to  overcome  superstitious 
scruples,  and  I  find  that  so  recently  as  1833  a  special  minute  is 
entered  in  the  parish  accounts  ordering  the  sexton  to  use  his  best 
endeavours  to  persuade  the  relatives  of  deceased  persons  to  bury  the 
corpse  on  the  north  side  of  the  church.  This  prejudice  was  universal 
in  Yorkshire,  but  at  Ilkley  it  has  continued  longer  than  at  most  places. 
At  the  same  time  reference  is  made  to  the  customory  duties  of  the 
dog-whipper,  and  at  Ilkley  he  is  ordered  to  be  "decently  attired  on 
the  Sabbath  Day,  and  to  be  ready  to  hand  company  to  their  seats  in 
the  church  according  to  their  condition,  and  to  preserve  decency  and 
order  during  divine  service  in  the  churchyard  and  street  adjoining." 
Dogs  also  followed  their  masters  and  mistresses  to  funerals,  and  the 
dog-whipper,  who  also  combined  the  office  of  sexton,  was  ordered  to 
"preserve  decency  and  order;  if  possible,  at  funerals." 

But  to  continue  the  story  of  the  local  institutions.  We  often 
find  the  old  Grammar  Schools  reared  out  of  the  revenues  of  the 
dissolved  chantries,  but  the  one  at  Ilkley  seems  to  have  had  an 


o 


' 


rth  ;£io,ooc 

• 

after 

have  rece 
The  west  window  is  ert 


214 

A  tablet  in  the  chancel  records: 

In  thankfulness  for  manifold  blessings  enjoyed  by  the  people  and  realm  of  England 
during  the  sixty  years'  reign  of  Victoria  n.d.  R.I.,  the  east  window  of  this  church  was 
dedicated  to  the  glory  of  God — 1898. 

From  the  churchyard  there  is  one  of  the  finest  views  in  Wharfedale. 
Three  of  the  remarkable  inscribed  rocks,  mentioned  in  the  chapter  on 
the  antiquities  of  Rumbalds  Moor,  are  kept  within  the  railed  enclosure 
on  the  north  side  of  the  church. 

The  ancient  vicarage  in  Church  Street  pulled  down  in  1894  and 
which  stood  on  the  site  of  the  new  Arcade,  see  page  209,  was  returned 
in  1818  as  fit  for  residence,  but  in  1834  as  unfit.  When  the  Rev.  Geo. 
Fenton, .curate  of  Ilkley,  started  the  Ilkley  Hospital  in  1829,  the 


"CHARITY    HOLE"    OLD   VICARAGE,    ILKLEY. 

parlour  of  the  old  vicarage  was  used  as  a  dispensary,  locally  known  as 
the  "Charity  Hole."  The  house  was  not  occupied  by  the  vicars  after 
Mr.  Fenton's  time,  and  a  new  and  more  suitable  residence  was  built  on 
the  glebe  land  in  Wells  Road  in  1847,  when  the  Rev.  John  Snowdon  was 
vicar.  Parson  Fenton  was  well-known  for  his  thorough-going,  business- 
like robust  character,  and  he  was  also  an  ardent  supporter  of  Tories 
of  the  old  school.  He  was  to  have  been  vicar  of  Otley,  but  that 
town  being  decidedly  Liberal,  a  strong  local  feeling  was  raised 
against  the  appointment.  The  late  Mr.  Peter  Garnett,  of  Otley,  and 
two  others  were  deputed  to  wait  on  Lord  Brougham,  then  Lord 
Chancellor,  who  was  then  a  guest  of  the  Duke  of  Devonshire  at 


"5 

Bolton  Abbey,  and  their  objections  so  far  prevailed  that  Mr.  Fenton 
was  appointed  vicar  of  Roystone  instead,  and  the  living  of  Otley  at 
the  express  wish  of  the  congregation  was  given  to  the  Rev.  Ayscough 
Kawkes.  Mr.  Fenton  was  also  a  prime  mover  in  various  matters  of 
practical  utility  to  Ilkley.  He  opened  out  the  "Canker  or  Sore-K\> 
Well"  in  Green  Lane,  had  the  steep  gradient  in  Cow  Pasture  Road 
much  reduced,  and  was  generally  active  in  seeing  the  place  improved 
and  beautified  with  planting. 

On 'the  north-west  side  of  the  church  stands  the  substantial  old 
manor-house,  now  known  as  the  "Castle."  It  is  a  rather  good 
example  of  a  "strong"  domestic  house  of  the  Tudor  period  consisting 
of  a  centre  with  wings,  having  pointed  doorways  and  transomed- 
mullion  windows.  The  upper  rooms  are  not  ceiled,  and  there  are  no 
cellars.  Here  in  the  old  days  the  courts  of  the  manor  were  held  and 
many  a  scene  of  importance  and  picturesque  bustle  must  the  old 
house  have  witnessed  in  other  times.  It  is  now  let  off  in  cottages. 

The  Nonconformists  are  a  numerous  body  in  Ilkley,  though 
none  of  the  denominations  except  the  Society  of  Friends,  may  be 
said  to  be  of  ancient  standing  in  the  town.  The  Friends  have  a 
small  but  well-built  Meeting  House  in  Queen's  Road.  The  Wesleyans 
have  been  established  here  for  the  best  part  of  a  century  and  have 
a  beautiful  and  commodious  chapel,  with  schools  &c.,  erected  in  1869 
in  Wells  Road.  They  have  also  a  new  chapel  at  Ben  Rhydding. 
In  1829  they  met  for  worship  in  a  room  of  the  house  of  Mr.  Wm. 
Bell,  grocer,  Brook  Street.  The  Congregationalists  have  a  large  and 
handsome  place  of  worship  in  the  Grove,  erected  at  a  cost  of  about 
j^  5,000.  It  was  opened  in  1869.  It  is  in  the  Decorated  Gothic 
style,  with  spire  130  feet  high,  and  on  the  south  side  is  an  excellent 
lecture-hall,  with  class-rooms  &c.  The  Primitive  Methodists  have  a 
chapel  in  the  Leeds  road,  erected  in  1878  at  a  cost  of  about  ^2,000. 
The  Baptists  have  also  recently  started  a  mission  here.  The  Roman 
Catholics  who  had  long  held  their  services  in  the  chapel  attached  to 
Middleton  Lodge,  built  in  1879  a  new  and  more  convenient  place  of 
worship  near  the  Middleton  Hotel.  The  chancel  is  apsidal  in  the 
manner  of  the  early  Latin  churches.  Ilkley  also  possesses  a  Roman 
Catholic  College,  established  in  1894  on  the  foundation  of  the  old  St. 
Paulinus'  Academy  at  Catterick,  which  for  many  years  was  carried  on 
by  Mr.  T.  Skelton.  There  are  also  good  Church  National  Schools 
and  a  number  of  excellent  private  schools,  where  pupils  are  prepared 
for  the  University  and  other  courses. 

Ilkley  also  possesses  an  excellent  Museum,  as  might  be  expected 
in  a  place  overflowing  with  historic  interest.  An  account  of  its 
principal  treasures  written  by  Mr.  Wm.  Cudworth,  the  well-known 
Bradford  archaeologist,  appears  in  the  Reliquary,  for  1898.  Among 
the  various  Roman  objects  to  be  seen  is  a  somewhat  rare  example  of 
a  triple- vase,  consisting  of  three  conjoined  receptacles  having  connected 


2l6 

holes  inside.  There  is  also  part  of  a  Roman  sepulchral  monument, 
inscribed  :  D.M.  PVDE  JESSEI  LEG  n  A.,  and  another  Roman  grave-slab 
found  in  1884  near  the  Rose  and  Crown  hotel,  which  bears  the  design 
of  a  female  figure  seated,  and  an  imperfect  inscription  beneath.  Mr. 

Watkin  reads  it  as  follows  :   DIS  MANIBUS VK  .  .  .  ic  .  .  . 

NCONIS  FILIA  ANNORVM.  xxx.  ccoRNOviA  H.s.E.  [To  the  divine  shades 
of  ....  daughter  of  ....  thirty  years  of  age,  a  Cornovian  citizen. 
Here  she  is  laid.]  According  to  Mr.  Watkin  this  stone  possesses  a 
unique  value,  inasmuch  as  it  is  the  only  inscription  to  a  Cornovian 
citizen  which  has  been  found  in  Roman  Britain.*  The  stone 
measures  6  feet  2  inches  by  2  feet  9  inches  (see  plate).  There  is  an 


ILKLEY    MUSEUM. 


interesting  collection  of  Roman  coins  presented  or  lent  by  Mr.  W. 
Mitton,  ot  Ilkley,  Mr.  J.  Lister,  of  Rockwood  House,  Mr.  John 
Lambert,  of  Leeds,  the  proprietors  of  the  Ilkley  Free  Press,  and 
others.  Likewise  a  large  collection  of  querns  of  various  ages,  stone 
mortars,  and  Roman  millstones,  including  specimens  of  the  grooved 
type  in  volcanic  material  imported  from  Italy. 

The  Ilkley  Hospital  and  Convalescent  Home,  established  in 
1829  as  the  Ilkley  Bath  Charity,  had  a  permanent  building  erected 
in  the  Grove  in  1861,  and  this  was  the  first  convalescent  hospital 
erected  in  Yorkshire.!  There  is  also  the  Semon  Convalescent  Home, 
founded  in  1874  by  the  late  Mr.  Charles  Semon,  a  Bradford  merchant, 

*  Royal  Archaeological  Journal,  vol.  xlii.,  p.  153. 
f  See  Mr.  Cudworth's  History  oftJte  Home  (1893). 


-  i  7 

and  sonic  time  mayor  of  that  city.  Both  arc  admirable  institutions, 
doing  a  noble  service  and  deserving  of  the  best  encouragement  and 
support.  They  are  large  and  airy  buildings,  under  excellent 
management,  and  their  design  and  sanitation  leave  nothing  to  be 
desired.  In  spite  of  the  rapid  development  of  Ilkley  in  recent  years, 
and  the  consequent  increase  in  the  number  of  buildings,  the  local 
authorities  have  looked  well  after  sanitary  affairs,  and  it  is  satisfactory 
to  know  that  the  Medical  Officer  of  Health  for  the  West  Riding  has 
repeatedly  been  able  to  state  that  Ilkley  enjoys  the  lowest  death-rate 
of  any  locality  within  his  jurisdiction.  There  are  now  (1900)  close 


OLD    HOUSE    IN    GREEN    LANE.    ILKLEY. 


upon  1,500  inhabited  houses  (an  increase  of  500  since  1891)  and  the 
rateable  value  amounts  to  ^44,800.  Despite  this  large  increase  in 
building  and  population,  the  health  of  the  district  has  greatly 
improved.  During  the  five  years,  1874-8,  the  average  death-rate  was 
16-3  per  1000,  whereas  in  the  five  years,  1894-8,  the  average 
mortality  (including  deaths  of  visitors)  was  i2~g,  which  will  compare 
with  the  most  favored  towns  and  watering-places  in  England. 

Betore  the  railway  to  Ilkley  was  opened  in  1865  (August  ist) 
the  coaches  ran  into  the  town  daily  to  and  from  Leeds  and  Bradford. 
The  Wharfedale  Bee.  the  Ilkley  Defiance,  the  Eclipse,  and  the  Hark 


2l8 

Forward  were  the  busy  and  pushing  names  by  which  these  rival 
vehicles  were  known  in  the  old  days,  vying  and  competing  with  each 
other  for  the  public  patronage.  The  Hark  Foward,  a  Leeds  coach, 
came  to  grief  in  the  autumn  of  1832  soon  after  it  had  left  the  Rose 
and  Crown  hotel  at  Ilkley.  The  driver  was  tightening  the  reins  in 
turning  a  corner,  and  he  himself  seems  to  have  been  a  bit  "  tight,'' 
when  the  heavily-passengered  vehicle  was  upset  and  one  aged  female, 
named  Hannah  Allerton,  of  Parsley,  was  killed  ,  others  were  more  or 
less  injured.  Soon  afterwards  the  Commerce  took  its  place,  and  in 
two  years  (1835)  this  again  was  succeeded  by  the  British  Queen, 
which  ran  between  Leeds  and  Ilkley,  through  Kirkstall,  Yeadon, 
Guiseley,  Menston,  and  Burley,  taking  two  hours  each  way.*  I  find 
in  the  Ilkley  churchwardens'  accounts  for  1833,  that  the  sexton  had 
to  attend  to  the  clock  in  the  church  tower  and  keep  it  to  the  post- 
time  once  a  week. 

Less  than  forty  years  has  made  a  wonderful  transformation  in 
the  aspects  of  the  old  place.  When  the  old  Sedbergh  Grammar 
School  lands,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  railway-station,  were  sold  by  the 
late  Mr.  Edward  Hirst  Wade,  the  subsequent  recent  erections 
completely  changed  the  appearance  of  this  important  part  of  the 
town.  Ilkley  is  practically  a  modern  town  now,  and  there  are  very 
few  of  the  old  landmarks  remaining.  The  old  Green  Lane  (now  the 
Grove)  is  completely  lost.  Here  stood,  on  what  is  now  the  site  of 
Mr.  Hargreaves'  shop,  what  was  commonly  spoken  of  as  the  Manor 
House,  and  where  I  am  told,  the  Court  Leets  were  held,  but  there  is 
little  doubt  from  its  proximity  to  the  church  that  the  courts-baron 
and  other  of  the  lords'  business  would  be  held  for  convenience  in  the 
"Old  Castle."  The  manor-house,  strictly  speaking,  was  Myddelton 
Lodge.  The  picturesque  old  thatch  in  the  Grove  (see  plate)  was  at 
one  time  a  favorite  resort  of  Madame  Tussaud,  of  wax-work  celebrity. 
The  ground  about  it  was  quite  open,  and  it  had  a  pretty  garden  at 
one  end,  where  a  few  nice  roses  used  to,  be  grown.  About  seventy 
years  ago  it  was  the  Ilkley  post-office,  kept  by  Thomas  Stephenson. 
The  office  was  afterwards  removed  to  the  White  House  on  the 
Addingham  road,  kept  by  Vickers,  and  from  there  it  was  transferred 
to  the  Leeds  road,  in  what  is  now  Walmsley's  shop,  opposite  Weston 
Road  end.  From  there  it  was  taken  to  the  top  of  Brook  Street. 

Then  there  was  another  interesting  old  thatch,  well-known  in  its 
day  as  "Mother  Downe's  Cottage,"  of  which  I  am  privileged  to  give 
a  full-page  view  reproduced  from  a  very  scarce  original  in  the 
possession  of  Mr.  Win.  Brumfitt.  This  old  house  stood  in  Wells 
Road,  where  the  Royal  Hotel  has  since  been  built.  A  century  ago 
there  was  also  in  this  locality  a  small  cotton-mill,  and  old  Mr. 
Hezekiah  Dobson  told  me  that  his  father,  who  was  born  in  1785, 

*  The  reader  is  referred  to  Mr.  Tom  Bradley's  Coaching  Days  in  Yorkshire  for  a 
very  full  account  of  the  numerous  coaches  formerly  on  the  roads. 


•""- 

*•- 


22O 

worked  in  it  as  a  lad.  The  mill  was  afterwards  converted  into 
cottages  and  eventually  pulled  down  when  the  Wells  House  stables 
were  built. 

There  was  as  I  have  already  observed,  hardly  a  slated  house  to 
be  seen.  Mr.  Alfred  Austin,  the  Poet  Laureate,  whom  Yorkshire  is 
proud  to  claim  as  one  of  her  worthiest  dalesmen,  used  often  when  a 
boy  to  turn  his  pony's  head  in  the  direction  of  Ilkley  and  the 
charming  woods  of  Bolton,  which  he  has  commemorated  in  his  well- 
known  "Human  Tragedy."  Born  within  two  hours'  gentle  ride  of 
the  then  primitive  village,  many  a  time  has  he  stayed  at  the  old 
thatched  cottage  which  stood  opposite  Butterfield's  antique  dwelling 
at  Middleton  road  end.  The  cottage  was,  I  believe,  at  that  time 
kept  by  a  Mrs.  Senior,  but  was  long  ago  pulled  down.  It  had  a  nice 
little  parlour  and  ample  kitchen,  where  oatmeal  cakes  were  hung 
astride  the  wires  stretched  along  its  time-stained  rafters,  and  its 
quaint  diamond-paned  windows  looked  out  upon  a  bit  of  garden  half- 
wild  with  roses,  daisies,  sweet-thyme  and  the  old-fashioned  lavender. 
The  Laureate  has  said  that  upon  the  well-remembered  occasions  of 
these  early  visits  to  the  quiet  old  moorland  village  he  in  all 
probability  first  learned  to  sing ;  listening  as  he  was  wont  to  the 
silvery-toned  becks  that  now  hurried,  now  loitered  down  what  seemed 
to  childish  eyes  its  steep  hill-side.  A  little  rivulet  then  zigzagged 
with  many  a  pleasant  sound,  down  the  main  street  (as  shewn  in  the 
picture  prefacing  this  chapter),  until  its  little  energy  was  spent  in  the 
greater  tide  of  the  river  below.  Although  these  familiar  sights  and 
sounds  are  gone,  the  prejudices  born  of  the  tender  reminiscences  of 
childhood  are  not  easily  eradicated,  and  memories  whose  happiness 
gains  in  the  retrospect  cannot  avoid  being  tinged  with  some  remorse 
at  the  many  changes  that  have  taken  place.  But  the  man  who  rails 
against  progress,  even  of  the  mere  material  sort,  seems  really  to  quarrel 
with  the  divine  dispensation  in  any  attempt  to  allay  those  natural 
aspirations  that  incite  humanity  to  better  its  condition. 

When  the  railway  was  brought  in  1864-5,  the  resident  population 
did  not  much  exceed  1,000  persons.  It  is  now  about  7,000,  and  this 
number  is  probably  quite  doubled  by  resident  visitors  in  the  summer 
season,  while  the  number  of  day-visitors  cannot  be  far  short  of 
200,000  in  the  course  of  twelve  months.  These  are  largely  drawn 
from  the  populous  city  of  Bradford  and  neighbourhood,  who,  glad  to 
escape  from  the  dust  and  environment  of  crowded  streets,  frequently 
take  the  familiar  walk  over  the  high  bracing  moors  from  Saltaire 
and  Bingley.  A  notable  step  for  the  public  weal  in  the  future  was 
made  by  the  Ilkley  Local  Board  in  1892,  when  the  whole  manorial 
rights  over  Ilkley  Moor,  Hollin  Hall  Moor,  Heber's  Ghyll  and  the 
Panorama  Rocks,  were  purchased  from  Mr.  C.  W.  Middleton,  lord  of 
the  manor.  This  important  purchase  by  the  local  authorities  has 
practically  given  to  the  public  the  right  of  access  to  upwards  of  2000 


221 

acres  of  fine  moorland  and  woodland,  with  all  rights  of  water  on  the 
moors  and  other  privileges,  a  boon  of  priceless  value  as  the  need  for 
open  spaces  increases.  There  has  been  for  some  time  a  desire  to 
raise  the  general  status  of  the  town  by  the  erection  of  Public  Offices, 
and  at  a  meeting  of  the  District  Council  held  October  4th  1899, 
it  was  resolved  that  steps  be  taken  to  carry  the  proposal  into  effect. 
The  buildings  are  to  include  provision  for  a  museum  and  free  library, 
on  a  plot  of  land  purchased  for  the  purpose  in  Station  Road.  The 
total  cost  will  probably  reach  £8,000  to  ;£  10,000. 

The  large  hydro's,  hotels,  and  numerous  lodging-houses  are 
very  often  full  in  the  summer.  The  admirably  situated  hydro's 
erected  on  the  skirts  of  the  moor  are  amongst  the  largest  and 
handsomest  buildings  of  the  kind  in  the  kingdom.  The  extensive 
CM  iblishment  at  Ben  Rhydding,  opened  in  1844,  has  the  reputation 
of  being  the  first  hydropathic  hotel  erected  in  Great  Britain.*  Near 
here  was  the  ancient  and  original  village  of  Wheatley,  whose  houses 
were  until  quite  recent  times  mostly  single-deckers  covered  with  ling- 
thatches.  Some  foundations  of  thick-walled  housesteads  have  also 
been  removed  from  the  vicinity,  and  these  may  possibly  have  been  of 
prehistoric  age.  The  place  gave  name  to  an  ancient  family,  of 
which  Hugo  de  Whetelay  was  rector  of  Leathley  in  1302,  and  the 
name  also  appears  in  the  1378  poll-tax  for  Burley  and  Killinghall. 
Little  remains  now  save  the  old  Hall,  a  roomy  lyth  century  building 
having  a  north  and  south  aspect,  close  to  the  south  side  of  the  Ben 
Rhydding  railway  station.  There  are  two  transomed  mullion  windows 
on  the  south  side,  and  the  principal  doorway  has  simple  moulded 
jambs  and  a  plain,  heavy  lintel,  bearing  no  indications  of  initials  or 
date.  It  is,  however,  very  probable  that  the  house  was  built  by  the 
Boilings,  who  were  property  owners  in  Ilkley  in  the  15111  century,  and 
long  resident  in  the  district.  Mrs.  Ann  Boiling,  widow  of  John 
Boiling,  who  died  in  1730,  and  to  whom  there  is  an  inaccurately-dated 
memorial  in  the  Bradford  Parish  Church,  held  the  property,  and  at 
her  death  in  1772  it  was  left  to  her  relative  Wm.  Boiling,  of  Ilkley. 
At  this  time  Wheatley  Hall  was  in  the  occupation  of  his  kinsfolk, 
the  Ellis  family,  who  afterwards  removed  to  Hollin  Hall.  William 
Boiling,  in  conjunction  with  his  brother  Edward,  was  in  the  tobacco 
business  in  Ilkley,  which  he  appears  to  have  given  up  on  the  death 
of  Edward  in  1760.  He  married  a  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Thomas 

*  Dr.  Collyer  writes  that  when  Ben  Rhydding  was  building  in  1846  and  the 
founders  were  casting  about  for  a  name,  the  matter  came  up  for  discussion  one  evening 
in  the  "  Pint-Pot  Parliament,"  which  had  sat  at  the  If/nut  Sheaf  in  Ilkley  time  out  of 
mind.  Mr.  Hamer  Stansfeld  (the  founder)  wanted  a  "good  and  ancient  name,"  and 
was  particularly  wishful  to  know  what  the  upland  was  called  in  the  old  times  on  which 
Ben  Rhydding  is  built.  Nancy  Wharton,  our  hostess,  said  she  knew,  and  gave  us  the 
name  Ben  (not  Bean)  Rydding.  It  had  passed  out  of  the  common  memory,  but  had 
survived  by  some  good  hap  in  Nancy's  mind,  and  it  was  from  this  little  seed  the  name 
sprang  again  whirh  has  became  famous. 


223 

Lister,  vic.ir  of  Ilkley,  b\  whom  he  had  a  large  family,  and  on  his 
death  in  1832,  aged  eighty-six,  the  Wheatley  estate  was  left  to  his 
two  sons,  William  and  Lister  Boiling,  who  were  then  living  at  the 
Hall  and  both  of  whom  died  unmarried.  The  property  was  inherited 
by  their  kindred  the  Margerisons,  of  whom  Richard  Margerison,  of 
Manninghan,  son  of  John  of  Ilkley,  yeoman,  married  Phoebe,  daughter 
of  John  Boiling,  and  died  in  1851.  The  old  homestead  for  a  long 
time  has  been  tenanted  as  a  farm,  and  was  purchased  about  three 
years  ago  of  the  Margerisons  by  Mr.  John  Beanlands,  of  Ilkley. 
Mr.  John  Mawson  and  Mr.  Christopher  Thornton  were  tenants  for 
many  years,  and  latterly  Mr.  Joseph  Cook  rented  the  house  and 
farm. 

I  remember  calling  at  the  house  some  time  ago  when  the  good 
woman  who  was  in  charge  kindly  shewed  me  over  the  premises.  I 
asked  if  any  tradition  or  event  of  importance  was  attached  to  the  old 
house,  when  she  replied,  "O,  yes,  Oliver  Cromwell  has  slept  here  one 
night."  "Ah"!  I  answered,  "I  suppose  that  would  be  before  the 
great  tight  on  Marston  Moor"?  "No,  no,"  she  quickly  replied,  "it 
was  the  night  before  he  blew  up  Bolton  Abbey"! 


CHAPTER    XV. 


RUMBALDS   MOOR  :    ITS   PHYSICAL   FEATURES  AND   ANTIQUITIES. 

Unrivalled  attractions  of  Rumbalds  Moor — Meaning-  of  its  name — St.  Rumold,  a 
Christian  martyr — View  from  the  top  of  the  Moor — Local  geology — Glacial 
evidences — Curious  rocks  and  traditions—  Advent  of  man— Original  Goidelic 
settlement — "Cow  and  Calf"  rocks — Marked  stones  and  circles —Their  universal 
dispersion — Local  workers — Descriptive  list  of  antiquities  on  the  Moor — Theories 
and  ideas  respecting  them — Symbols  of  time  &c. — Evolution  of  the  Sun-Snake 
The  doctrine  of  the  ascending  spirit — The  marked  stones,  the  basis  of  Ilkley's 
existence — Necessity  for  their  careful  preservation — Projected  military  encampment 
on  the  Moor — An  unrivalled  playground. 

HAT  wide  and  noble  expanse  of  rugged  moorland 
which  rises  above  Ilkley,  with  its  life-giving  breezes, 
pleasant  walks  and  memories  of  primeval  occupation 
possesses,  as  I  have  before  remarked,  an  almost 
unrivalled  interest.  To  write  fully  of  its  wonderfully- 
formed  rocks  and  hanging-cliffs,  abundant  remains  of  the  glacial 
epoch,  its  story  of  the  first  footsteps  of  man  in  Wharfedale,  its 
Celtic  fairy-lore,  the  many  mystic-marked  stones,  with  all  their 
strange  traditions — augurs  of  a  happier  faith ; — the  passing  of  the 
Roman,  the  Angle  and  Dane  along  its  crested  steeps,  the  camps, 
cairns,  and  rude  stone-circles ,  its  mediaeval  history  down  through 
the  stirring  episodes  of  the  great  Civil  War,  even  to  the  recent 
period  of  those  hapless  sprites,  Wise  Robin  of  Rumbalds  Moor  and 
the  old  hermit,  Job  Senior,  who  chose  this  solitude  against  all 
others  ;  not  to  mention  all  that  might  be  said  of  its  natural  history 
productions,  the  birds  and  butterflies,  flowers  and  mosses  and 
reindeer-lichens,  would  forsooth  make  the  story  of  this  grand  old 
moor  a  tome  in  itself. 

Many  have  been  the  conjectures  respecting  the  origin  and 
meaning  of  its  name.  In  old  documents  it  is  variously  spelled 
Rumbles,  Rummells,  Romalls,  with  variants  of  a  single  or  double 
m,  also  Rumolds,  Rumbalds,  Rombalds,  sometimes  the  first  syllable 
with  o,  sometimes  u.  There  are  at  least  a  score  different  spellings 
of  the  name.  Many  are  of  opinion  that  it  is  derived  from  the  first 
Norman  owner  of  the  great  lordship  of  Skipton,  Robert  de  Romille, 
and  that  the  correct  spelling  should  be  Romille's  Moor.  But  my 
impression  is  that  the  name  goes  back  long  anterior  to  the  Conquest, 
and  that  the  local  pronunciation  which  the  moor  has  borne  from 
time  immemorial  has  been  Rumbalds  or  Rumbles  Moor,  the  latter  a 


225 

possible  contraction  or  corruption  of  Rumbalds  or  Rumolds.  In  the 
Skipton  Parish  Registers  I  find  these  entries  : 

1621,  August  3  Matthew  Brigge  of  RUMBLBSMOOR,  buried 

1644,  Feb.  9  John  hargraves,  a  snuldier  slayne  on  tin-  top  ot  Ri  MLKYSMORE. 

1665,   July  22  William   \Vade  \vlio   lived  att   London,   i-omeing  to  see   his   Father, 

Anthony  Wade,  dyed  on  Rt  MKU.SMOKI:,  a->  it  was  suppled  <m  the  Plauge, 

Therefere  buried  there. 

The  latter  by  the  way  is  an  interesting  note  on  the  great  Plague, 
when  all  who  were  able  fled  from  the  stricken  city,  and  thousands 
of  bodies  were  weekly  given  over  to  the  dead-cart  and  pest-house  in 
that  terrible  year,  1665. 

Whether  the  family  name  of  Romille  or  Rumbold  be  at  the 
root  of  its  meaning,*  or  what  may  be  the  true  explanation,  will 
probably  never  be  known.  Perhaps  I  might  suggest  that  the 
moor,  with  its  abundant  ante-Norman  remains,  was  as  elsewhere 
explained,  in  the  heart  of  Christian  Elmete,  and  that  after  the  first 
coming  of  the  pagan  Danes,  the  Anglo-British  Christians  fled  to 
this  wild  solitude,  and  dedicated  the  moor  for  all  time  to  the  martyr 
St.  Rumold  (A.D.  775),  who  embraced,  like  the  British  Christians 
of  old,  voluntary  poverty,  and  who,  though  he  was  ordained  Bishop, 
frequently  withdrew  frum  the  vanities  of  the  world  to  renew  his 
spirit  before  God  in  pensive  solitude.  This  aloofness  from  the 
world  was  but  the  expression  of  the  monastic  spirit  of  the  age 
which  had  first  taken  root  at  Lindisfarne.  It  was  on  lonely 
Lindisfarne  (long  the  chief  citadel  of  Christian  piety  in  the  north), 
that  the  pagan  Vikings  fell  in  793  ;  Jarrow  yielded  to  them  next 
year,  and  all  Northumbria  seemed  likely  to  fall  into  their  hands. 
The  great  collapse  however,  did  not  take  place  until  seventy  years 
afterwards,  when  all  Yorkshire  was  harried,  and  save  in  the  least 
accessible  places,  Christianity  ceased  to  exist  with  all  its  visible 
belongings.  At  this  time,  too  (A.D.  870),  the  steadfast  Archbishop 
of  the  extensive  Province  of  York  was  flung  into  exile  on  the  skirts 
of  Rumbalds  Moor,  by  the  pagan  Danes,  as  we  learn  from  Simeon 
of  Durham.  Though  it  seems  much  more  probable  that  Archbishop 
Wulfhere  had  escaped  from  the  Danish  massacres  with  numbers  of 
others,  and  had  found  a  strong  refuge  among  the  Christians  centred 
about  Rumbalds  Moor. 

The  fame  of  the  pious  Rumold  was  not  allowed  to  slumber,  and 
in  North  Yorkshire,  the  conjectured  boundary  of  Prof.  Green's 
kingdom  of  Elmete,  the  ancient  church  at  Romaldkirk  (in  Domes- 
day spelled  Rumoldescherce)  is  dedicated  to  St.  Rumold.  In  Celtic 
Ireland  especially  was  his  greatness  celebrated,  and  every  first  of 
July  his  anniversary  was  kept  in  the  capital  Province  of  Dublin  with 
much  ceremony.  In  the  eighteenth  century  his  festival  became 

•   See   "Notes  <>n   the   History  ot   the   family  of   Kurnold    in    the    17111   Century"   in 
f i\i us.  f\<n-.  Hist.  .W.  X.S.  Vol.  VI.  pp.  i45-H\v 


226 

general  in  that  country,  and  though  not  observed  here,  there  is  little 
doubt  but  that  in  earlier  ages  St.  Rumold  would  be  commemorated 
by  the  Christians  of  Deira,  as  in  other  places.*     It  was  to  Mechlin, , 
in  Germany,  that  his  relics  were  taken  for  ultimate  preservation  in 
the  grand  church  there  raised  in  his  honour. 

Let  us  now  climb  the  rugged  brow,  and  up  beside  the  old  White 
House  on  the  moor  edge,  a  familiar  landmark  since  our  childhood's 
days.  Higher  still  we  climb  until  above  the  beetling  crags  we  feel 
the  fresh  breezes  sweep  over  the  boundless  tracts  of  heather.  The 
air  perchance  is  filled  with  sunlight  and  we  have  to  screen  our  eyes 
to  enjoy  the  vast  and  lovely  expanse  of  country  that  opens  around 


VIEW   OF   ILKLEY   FROM    PANORAMA   WOODS. 


us.     Far  away  to  the  east  we  scan  the  hills  that  bound  the  great 
vale  of  York,  with  the  twin  towers  of  the  Minster  just  visible.      With 

Doubtless  the  celebrations  would  have  been  kept  up  here  and  in  Wharfedale,  had 
not  the  Romish  influence  of  Wilfrid  proved  too  strong-  for  the  Celtic  priesthood  and 
ritual  to  continue.  The  synod  of  Whitby  in  664,  though  its  effect  was  not  felt  among 
the  Celtic  Christians  of  our  western  Yorkshire  for  a  long  period,  prevailed  in  the  end. 
It  was  the  cause  of  a  severance  between  the  English  and  Irish  Churches,  the  consequences 
of  which  has  survived  even  to  our  own  day.  St.  Wilfrid  sowed  the  seed  of  destruction 
in  Wharfedale,  and  those  three  Romish  sculptured  crosses  in  Celtic  Ilkley,  elsewhere 
spoken  of,  remain  contemporary  memorials  of  this  great  Christian  separation. 


tin1  aid  of  a  field-glass  the  distant  range  of  the  Hambletons  reaching 
almost  to  C'rathorne  on  the  Durham  honlerland,  may  even  be  descried 
forty  miles  awa\  !  Looking  northwards  and  westwards  beautiful 
\Vharfedale  fills  the  intermediate  prospect  that  is  bounded  by  the 
classic  heights  of  Rylstone  and  Cracoe  Fells,  while  the  old  Armada 
beacon-cones  of  Flasby  Fell,  with  distant  Whernside  and  flat-topped 
mighty  Ingleborough  loom  far  away  on  the  pale  horizon.  Climbing 
to  the  very  summit  of  the  ridge  (1323  feet)  the  prospect  westwards 
over  the  valley  of  the  Aire  is  not  so  interesting  nor  so  wide,  some  of 
the  Lancashire  border  hills  including  legendary  Pendle,  being  the 
most  prominent  features.  There  is  a  lovely  peep  over  the  valley, 
with  the  winding  river  and  spreading  to\\n,  from  the  Panorama 
Woods,  shewn  in  the  accompanying  picture.  It  is  from  a  beautifully 
clear  photograph  taken  by  Mr.  Joseph  Pollard,  a  local  amateur, 
whose  lantern  lectures  from  his  own  views  have  delighted  many 
audiences  at  Ilkley  and  elsewhere. 

Wandering  with  an  inquisitive  eye  among  the  crags  and  huge 
tumbled  stones  of  this  grand  moor,  I  have  sometimes  been  asked  by 
strangers  to  the  district  if  these  rocks  are  granite.  The  dark, 
weathered,  and  compact  masses,  with  their  partly  granitic  constituents, 
may  easily  deceive  the  uninitiated,  and  the  keen  but  uninstructed 
vision  of  Charlotte  Bronte  mistook  these  rocks  in  like  manner  for 
granite.  But  there  is  no  true  granite  in  Yorkshire,  save  what  may 
have  been  imported  by  the  agency  of  glaciers  in  the  far-off  Ice  Age. 
The  surface  structure  of  our  county  was  built  up  long,  long  after  such 
plutonic  deep-seated,  and  non-fossiliferous  matter  as  granite  was 
formed.  The  following  little  table  will  shew  our  position  in  the 
geological  age,  beginning  with  the  interior  of  the  earth : 

Feet  approximately  Feet  approximately 

Primary                     Unascertained  CARBONIFEROUS  10,000 

Cumbrian                        10,000  Saliferous  2,000 

Cambrian                            20,000  Oolite  and  I.ia-  2,^00 

Silurian                                  7i5°°  \\Caldcn  1,000 

Upper  and  Lower  Cretaceous  1,100 

Old  Red  Sandstone         10,000  Tertiary  (most  recent)  2,000 

Nearly  the  whole  of  West  Yorkshire  is  comprised  within  the  Carboni- 
ferous group,  which  consists  of  mountain-limestone  (the  lowest) 
millstone-grit,  with  shales  and  sandstones,  and  the  coal  measures. 
When  I  say  that  the  neighbourhood  of  Ilkley  is  on  the  millstone-grit, 
it  will  be  seen  at  once  where  we  stand  in  point  of  geological  antiquity. 
To  the  student  of  the  millstone-grit  group  of  rocks,  Ilkley  forms  a 
very  convenient  centre,  as  within  a  very  few  miles,  the  whole  series, 
from  the  Kinderscout  Grit  (the  lowest)  to  the  Rough  Rock  on  the 
summit  of  Rumbalds  Moor,  may  be  examined  and  studied. 

In  walking  towards  the  Panorama  Rocks  or  to  the  well-known 
"Cow  and  Calf,"  it  will  be  observed  that  the  hill-side  is  broken  into 
escarpments  of  varying  height  and  extent.  Each  ascent  is  composed 


228 

of  hard  beds  of  rock,  while  the  intervening  level  spaces  mark  where 
the  softer  shale  has  been  denuded  away.  The  process  of  denudation 
is  still  going  on,  widening  the  spaces,  and  which  in  course  of  time 
has  also  widened  and  shaped  the  valley  as  we  now  see  it.  Probably 
the  greater  portion  of  the  scattered  rocks  which  now  lie  thickly  and 
in  all  sorts  of  positions  on  the  hill-sides,  have  been  dislodged  and 
dropped  into  their  present  places,  during  the  closing  rigours  of  the  Ice 
Age,  when  the  violent  alternations  of  heat  and  frost,  acting  along 
natural  joints  and  fissures  in  the  strata,  burst  it  asunder  and  caused 
masses  to  fall  in.  In  this  epoch  of  more  equable  temperature  the 
effects  of  rain  and  sun  and  frost  in  such  places  are  scarcely 


THE   "Cow   AND   CALF"    ILKLEY. 

perceptible.  Some  of  the  gritstones  have  no  doubt  been  dropped  in 
their  present  positions  by  the  movement  and  break-up  of  the  glacier, 
as  amongst  them  in  places  may  be  found  blocks  of  calliard  where  no 
such  stone  is  in  situ.* 

*  Mr.  Edward  Sewell,  M.A.,  F.R.G.S.,  accounts  for  the  tumbled  rocks  on  the 
moor  sides  above  Ilkley  as  due  partly  to  "  the  action  of  the  sea  (when  Rumbalds  Moor 
was  partly  submerged)  first  undermining  the  cliffs,  then  carrying  the  blocks  down-hill, 
and  lastly  placing  them  or  piling  them  up  in  their  present  positions  ;"  likewise  "the 
action  of  coast-ice  during  the  glacial  period,  which  must  have  been  adequate  to  detach, 
launch,  and  desperse  blocks  on  a  large  scale  on  a  sea-coast  such  as  the  north-east 
escarment  of  Rumbalds  Moor  must  have  formed." 


229 

Man)  uf  the  rucks  have  been  broken  up  for  making  the  roads 
and  other  purposes  in  recent  times.  The  largest  and  most  notable 
of  these  was  a  monster  slipped-boulder  which  stood  near  the  road 
below  the  "Cow  and  Calf."  It  was  as  large  as  an  ordinary  cottage 
and  was  known  as  the  "Bull  Rock."  To  the  regret  of  many  it  was 
destroyed.  Old  people  tell  me  that  these  isolated  rocks  have  borne  the 
names  of  Bull  and  Cow  and  Calf  time  out  of  memory,  but  no  legend 
is  known  to  attach  to  them.  I  have  sought  through  the  traditions  of 
Celtic  and  Teutonic  fairy-lore  to  account  for  their  names,  and  have 
only  met  with  the  following  possibly  parallel  case  : — 

Several  centuries  since,  a  family  residing  on  Durzy  Island,  off  Bantry  Bay,  found  a 
beautiful  little  coal-black  bull  and  cow  on  a  verdant  spot  near  the  beach.  The  cow 
furnished  sufficient  butter  and  milk  for  all  domestic  wants,  and  next  year  a  calf  was 
added  to  the  number.  When  this  youngster  was  come  to  the  age  of  affording-  additional 
support  to  the  family,  a  wicked  servant  girl,  one  day  milking  the  parent  cow,  so  far 
forgot  herself  as  to  strike  the  gentle  beast  witli  the  spancel  and  curse  her  bitterly.  The 
outraged  animal  turned  round  to  the  other  two,  who  were  grazing  at  some  distance, 
and  lowed  to  them  in  a  sorrowful  tone,  and  immediately  the  three  moved  rapidly  off  to 
the  sea.  They  plunged  in  and  forthwith  the  three  rocks,  since  known  as  the  Bull,  Cow, 
and  Calf  arose,  and  continue  to  this  day  to  protest  against  the  wickedness  and  ingratitude 
of  cross-grained  servant-girls.* 

Story  and  tradition  cluster  round  these  old  time-stained 
Wharfedale  land-marks,  which  if  they  had  but  tongues  could  reveal 
to  us  many  a  tale  of  those  whom  they  have  sheltered  in  centuries 
long  past  and  of  riddles  to  the  antiquary  still  unsolved  ! 

But  if  these  stones  are  speechless,  the  sculptures  upon  them  are 
pregnant  with  meaning,  and  are  evidence  of  a  strange  people  who 
once  dwelt  here,  and  who  witnessed,  perhaps,  the  last  reign  of  the 
great  Ice  King  !  This  may  be  so,  yet  I  think  the  many  strange 
marked  stones  exhibit  to  us  the  presence  of  a  settled  community 
rather  than  that  of  a  nomadic  tribe  who  followed  the  retreat  of  the 
ice  northward  with  their  herds  of  reindeer.  There  can  however,  be 
no  doubt  from  what  I  have  already  said  that  these  moorland  and 
rocky  solitudes  above  Ilkley  harboured  the  first  refugees  of  the  great 
Celtic  immigration.  Whether  they  actually  sheltered  the  primitive 
pigmies  that  are  now  known  to  have  inhabited  the  caves  of  Western 
Europe,  (doubtless  the  stunted  beings  of  the  Ice  Age),f  and  from 

*  Kennedy's  legendary  Fictions  of  the  Irish  Celts,  p.  1 10. 

f  The  "Midden  Men"  of  Hastings,  described  by  Mr.  \V.  J.  Lewis  Abbott,  F.G.S., 
in  "Primeval  Refuse  Heaps  at  Hastings"  (vide  Natural  Science  for  July  and  August, 
1897)  seem  to  have  been  similar  diminutive  post-glacial  nomads,  using  no  cereals, 
carrying  no  querns  or  mealers,  and  ignorant  of  polishing  flint  and  of  barbing  arrows. 
They  had  no  human  enemies  to  contend  with,  and  no  kind  of  offensive  or  heavy  weapons 
accompany  these  interesting  remains.  The  primitive  lake-dwellers  of  Yorkshire  may 
also  have  been  of  like  antiquity,  though  it  seems  more  probable  from  the  discoveries 
made  near  Pickering  and  at  Ulrome  that  they  belonged  to  the  later  Stone  or  Bronze 
Age,  The  human  remains  found,  however,  shew  them  to  have  been  dwarfs.  Herodotus 
(400  B.C.)  the  earliest  Greek  historian  mentions  the  Lake  Dwellers  as  his  contemporaries. 
This  was  in  thr  Bronze  Age. 


230 

whom  sprung  the  traditions  of  our  dwarfs  and  fairies,  there  is  at 
least  one  fragment  of  local  evidence  to  offer.  Under  the  famous 
Hanging  Stone,  with  its  mystic  "cup  and  ring"  sculptures,  the  rock 
is  hollowed  out  forming  a  deep  overhanging  cavity,  and  I  am  told 
that  this  ancient  rock-shelter  has  been  known  from  time  immemorial 
as  "Fairies'  Kirk,"  and  traditions  of  its  having  been  tenanted  by  those 
tiny  sprites,  the  fairies,  still  exist  among  old  people  in  the 
neighbourhood.  When  the  Saxons  established  themselves  at  Ilkley 
they  were  going  to  build  a  church  up  here,  but  the  fairies  strongly 
resented.  They  would  have  none  of  it,  and  so  their  little  temple  was 
erected  in  the  vale  below.  The  fairies  distrust  any  intrusion  upon 
their  own  sacred  places,  and  is  it  not  Sir  Walter  Scott  who  relates  how 
somebody  long  ago  was  going  to  erect  a  church  at  Deer,  when  the 
fairies  with  one  voice  cried  out : — 

"It  is  not  here,  it  is  not  here, 

That  ye  shall  build  the  Kirk  o'  Deer, 

But  on  Taptillerie 

Where  many  a  grave  shall  be"? 

I  cannot  go  into  all  the  details  I  have  heard  of  the  antics  of  these 
mysterious  little  people  here  and  in  the  neighbouring  gills;*  it  is 
sufficient  to  note  the  survival  of  an  interesting  and  eminently  Celtic 
tradition.  I  have  already  broached  an  opinion  on  the  situation  of  the 
ol-y-ceann  of  the  Britons,  the  Olicana  of  the  Latins,  and  the  beetling 
rocky  headlands  terminating  in  the  fortress-like  "Cow  and  Calf,"  are 
just  the  kind  of  place  we  might  expect  to  be  occupied  during  the 
Brigantian  epoch,  when  the  valley  was  a  forest-fringed  swamp,  with 
its  exhaling  mists.  The  "Cow"  which  I  find  was  called  in  1807 
"Inglestone  Cow,"  a  name  now  quite  forgotten,  bears  no  mean 
resemblance  to  a  castle,  while  the  "Calf"  may  be  likened  to  a  keep, 
the  two  rocks  having  possibly  been  united  by  a  wall  or  bulwark  of 
turf  and  stones  forming  a  secure  and  chief  enclosure.  The  "Cow," 
as  it  now  stands,  is  I  should  say  the  largest  detached  block  of  stone 
in  England,  measuring  eighty  feet  long,  about  thirty-six  feet  wide  and 
upwards  of  fifty  feet  in  height.  From  one  point  of  view  it  presents, 
like  the  jutting  face  of  Kilnsey  Crag,  as  seen  from  the  north  side, 
the  appearance  of  a  huge  sphinx,  which  may  be  intentional,  or  it  may 
be  natural,  probably  the  latter.  The  face  of  the  rock  bears  a 
depression  that  looks  like  a  human  foot,  and  the  local  tradition 
concerning  it  is  that  the  genius  of  the  moors,  a  certain  giant  Rumbald, 
was  stepping  from  Almias  Cliff  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  valley,  to 
this  great  rock,  but  miscalculating  its  height  his  foot  slipped,  leaving 
the  impression  we  now  see.  Both  the  "Cow"  and  the  "Calf"  have 
cups  and  channels  on  their  surfaces,  which  were  conjectured  by 

-  In  ancient  Celtic  territory,  above  Middleton  Lodge,  is  a  deep  ravine,  which  so 
far  as  I  can  make  out  has  always  been  known  as  Fairy  Dell.  The  fairies  had  a  strong1 
dislike  not  alone-  to  Christian  Churches,  but  also  to  holy  wells.  See  remarks  on  Our 
Lady's  Well  near  Grassington  Bridge. 


231 

Mi-sM's.  Konvst  and  OrainiM'  in  [869  to  !•<•  connected  with  Druidical 
priestcraft,  and  that  their  purpose-  was  "to  retain  and  distribute  the 
liquid  furl  whirh  fed  the  sacred  flame  on  grand  festivals  of  the  year." 
Borlase  in  his  Natural  History  <>/'  Comical/  refers  to  similar  cup- 
sculptures,  on  rocks  known  as  Karn  Letkys,  or  the  Cairn  of  Burnings. 
But  whether  they  have  any  connection  with  the  Druids  is  very 
questionable.  Mr.  Worth  maintains  to  the  contrary  and  holds  that 
so  far  as  Devonshire  and  indeed  all  the  West  of  England  are 
concerned,  neither  history  nor  tradition,  nor  folk-lore,  nor  archaeology, 
afford  the  slightest  trace  of  Druidic  existence,  whether  in  the  sense  of 
( '.rsar  and  Pliny,  of  the  Welsh  bards,  or  of  the  constructive  ideal  of 
Borlase  and  Pohvhele.*  The  same  may  also  be  affirmed  of  our 
so-called  "Druids'  Circles," — those  rude  stone  erections  in  isolated 
places  sung  of  by  Ossian  and  the  ancient  bards,  but  in  no  sense 
hinting  at  any  Druidical  connection.  See  however  note  to  Simon  Seat. 

The  Ilkley  and  adjacent  moors,  as  I  have  said,  abound  with 
such  remains.  The  marked  stones,  cairns,  and  circles,  are  certainly 
more  numerous  in  this  locality  than  in  any  spot  of  equal  area  in 
Britain.  Consisting  of  shallow  cup-like  depressions  connected  by 
channels  with  larger  rock  basins,  or  entirely  separate  and  enclosed 
with  concentric  rings,  the  "cup  and  ring"  markings  have  excited 
wonder  and  stimulated  interest  in  the  beholder  far  beyond  our  own 
realms.  No  one  now  doubts  their  purely  artificial  origin,  for  they 
have  been  observed  on  rocks  in  every  one  of  the  four  divisions  of 
the  home  dominions,  in  the  Isle  of  Man  and  in  the  Channel  Islands, 
likewise  in  France,  Switzerland,  and  Scandinavia.  In  North  and 
South  America  they  are  also  met  with,  and  in  parts  of  Asia  and 
Africa,  as  well  as  in  Fiji  and  other  islands  of  the  South  Pacific. 
They  are  especially  numerous  in  the  East,  and  a  very  large  number 
bearing  the  peculiar  cup  and  ring  incisions  have  been  found  in  Moab.f 
But  in  no  part  of  the  world  has  anything  been  discovered  with  the 
peculiar  cups  and  ladder-like  markings  on  the  rocks,  now  laid  within 
an  enclosure  before  St.  Margaret's  Church  at  Ilkley,  and  to  which  I 
shall  presently  refer.J 

It  is  little  more  than  thirty  years  ago  the  Ilkley  stones  were 
discovered.  They  seem  to  have  been  first  observed  by  a  Mr.  Terry, 
while  on  a  visit  to  Ben  Rhydding  in  1X67.  But  this  is  disputed,  as 
in  the  same  year  Mr.  Chas.  Forrest,  of  Loft  house,  visited  them  and 
soon  afterwards  published  his  little  book  which  contains  the  first 

*    Trans,  of  the  Dii'nnshirc  v/.vwr.,  xii.,  228-42. 

f  See  Mnah'x  Patriarchal  Stii/trx,  by  the  Rev.  Jas.  King-. 

+  Small  cups  with  three  or  more  concentric  ring's  connected  with  perpendicular,  not 
hori/ontal  or  ladder-like  grooves,  have  been  found  engraved  on  bron/e  ring's,  brooches, 
and  other  objects  of  personal  adornment  found  among-  the  remains  of  the  primitive  Lake 
Dwelling's  in  Switzerland  and  other  places  on  the  Continent,  of  a  date  approximately 
300  to  1000  years  B.C.  See  also  Shaw's  liarbary  (1757)  where  is  an  illustration  of  a 
Mosaic  pavement  of  the  time  of  Alexander,  shewing  cup  and  ring  marks. 


232 

published  reference  to  them.  There  soon  followed  in  1869  Mr.  Jas. 
Wardell's  Historical  Notices  of  these  Moors  describing  the  camps  and 
cairns  and  the  "Cow  and  Calf"  markings,  stating  that  they  were  the 
only  ones  of  their  kind  yet  discovered  in  this  neighbourhood.  But 
further  examination  soon  brought  others  to  light,  and  nowhere  so 
abundantly  as  in  the  proximity  of  Ilkley.  From  some  of  them  much 


DR.   THOMAS   J.   CALL. 

peat  had  to  be  removed.  No  one,  I  may  say,  took  greater  interest 
in  these  discoveries  than  the  late  Dr.  Thomas  J.  Call,  who  was  medical 
officer  to  the  Ilkley  Hospital,  and  who  died  in  1883.  Dr.  Call  was 
in  fact  one  of  the  first,  if  not  the  first  practical  archaeologist  who 
called  public  attention  to  them,  though  so  far  as  I  can  make  out, 


233 

none  of  his  writings  an-  dated.*  He  discovered  some  of  the  stones 
himself,  and  at  various  times  made  sketches  and  took  rubbings  of 
.several  of  the  more  important  sculptures,  several  of  which  are  of 
espeeial  value  at  this  time  as  the  original  stones  from  which  they  were 
drawn  have  been  broken  up  or  despoiled.  These  records  of  Dr. 
Call's  usefulness  are  now  preserved  in  the  Ilkley  Museum.  Twenty 
years  ago  Mr.  Frederick  W.  Fison,  M.P.,  rendered  valuable  service 
by  uncovering  and  carefully  noting  some  of  the  marked  stones,  and 
he  with  Dr.  Call,  was,  I  believe,  the  first  to  introduce  them  to  the 
notice  of  Mr.  J.  Romilly  Allen,  whose  important  work  and  writings  on' 
the  Ilkley  stones  are  now  well  known.  Others,  as  for  example  the 
late  Mr.  John  Holmes,  of  Roundhay,  Mr.  Win.  Cudworth,  of  Bradford, 
and  various  members  of  local  societies,  have  been  scarcely  less 
indefatigable  in  their  efforts  to  note,  photograph,  and  elucidate  the 
mystery  of  these  inscribed  rocks.  Mr.  T.  C.  Gill,  the  Ilkley  District 
Council's  moor-keeper,  has  also  taken  great  interest  in  the  work  of 
their  discovery  and  preservation,  and  at  Silverwell  Farm  he  has  a 
fine  collection  of  flints  and  other  relics  obtained  while  ranging  the 
moor.  Having  had  the  benefit  of  Mr.  Gill's  guidance  on  several 
occasions,  I  have  noted,  I  believe,  in  the  following  table  every  known 
antiquity  on  this  unrivalled  ground: — 

LlST     OF     Ru.MBALDS     MOOR     ANTIQUITIES, 

i.  Cow  and  Calf,  basin,  cup,  and  channel  marked.  Described  above.  Some  think 
the  "basins"  are  due  to  natural  weathering.  I  have  heard  it  said  the  "Calf"  (ell 
from  the  "  Cow"  during  a  terrific  storm  about  a  century  ago,  but  this  is  extremely 
doubtful.  Anciently  the  Cow  was  known  as  the  Inglcstonc. 

J.  Hanging  Stone  (west  of  Cow  and  Calf),  cup  and  ring-  marked.  Some  vandal  has 
been  imitating  the  primeval  sculptures  by  chiselling  on  the  same  stone,  but  the 
freshness  of  the  recent  work  is  at  once  seen.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  quarrying- 
ha-  been  permitted  to  get  so  near  this  exceedingly  valuable  monument  of  antiquity, 
a  relic  which,  as  the  ages  roll  on,  must  gather  an  ever-deepening-  interest.  The 
sculptures  are  figured  in  Forrest  and  Gramme's  Kiimlialiis  Moor  (Part  iii).  Under 
it  is  the  equally  interesting 

3.  Fairies  Kirk,  described  above. 

4.  On  the  slope  of  the  hill  below  the  Fairies  Kirk  and  also  below  the  "Cow  and  Calf" 
are   several  deep  entrenchments   that   have   the  appearance  of   Prehistoric    Dykes. 
Whether  these  have  afforded  cover  to  the  ancient  settlements  on  the  heights  above 
I  am  not  prepared  to  say,  but  it  is  certain   they  have  been  cart-roads  to  quarries  in 
former  times,  the  old  ruts  being-  still  visible. 

5.  A  few  hundred  yards  directly  south  of  the   "Cow  and  Calf"  is  the   Pancake  Ridge 
and  well-known  curious  Pancake  Rock,  bearing  cup-marks. 

o.  About  200  yards  west  of  the  last  named  is  a  very  large,  solitary  boulder,  almost  as 
large  as  a  cottage.  It  has  a  coped  top  like  the  roof  of  a  house.  On  the  north  slope 
of  the  top  are  a  number  of  cup-shaped  hollows.  Described  by  Mr.  Allen  in  Jourl. 
lirit.  Arch.  Assoc.,  vol.  3^.  p.  19. 

7.  Going  in  the  direction  of  Green  Crag-  (1118  feet),  a  grassy  slope  extending-  east  and 
west,  a  little  south  of  the  last  named,  are  some  extensive  ancient  enclosures.  The 
ramparts  of  turf  and  stone,  occupy  three  sides  of  a  rectangle,  the  north,  east,  and 

Mr.   Romilly  Allen  holds  Dr.  Call  to  be  the  first  discoverer  in  1866.     See  No.  300 
of  "Local  Notes  and  (Queries"  in  the  Leeds  Merciuy  Supplement,     Also  301-3. 


234 

west,  while  the  south  is  commanded  by  the  elevated  slope  of  Green  Crag-.  This 
portion  shews  that  the  ground  above  must  have  been  strongly  occupied  by  the  same 
people  who  held  the  enclosures,  I  should  say  they  are  in  all  probability  enclosures 
tor  cattle,  thrown  up  with  a  stockade  by  the  Romani/.ed  Celts  on  the  Anglo-Saxon 
irruption.  Mr.  Gill  tells  me  that  nothing  to  his  knowledge  has  ever  been  found  on 
the  site.  See  also  Arctueologia,  vol.  xxxi. 

8.  A  short  distance  to  K.  of  these  enclosures  is,  on  Green  Crag*  a  unique  sculptured 
stone,  the  surface  being  almost  level  with  the  ground.  It  is  about  three  feet  by 
thirty  inches  in  its  greatest  measurement,  and  has  incised  upon  it  a  line  of  seven 
cups  enclosed  within  a  continuous  groove.  No  doubt  these  seven  marks  so 
enclosed  have  reference  to  the  "perfect  seven,"  a  symbol  of  the  highest  antiquity 
evolved  from  the  mystic  triang-le  enclosed  within  the  terrestial  square,  and  employed 
both  in  pagan  and  Christian  times  as  the  symbol  of  perfection.  "God  made  all 
things  by  measure,  number,  and  weight."  He  made  the  world  in  six  days  and  the 


PREHISTORIC   SCULPTURE   ON    GREEN    CRAG,    RUMBALDS    MOOR. 


seventh  was  consecrated  to  rest.  Every  seventh  year  the  ploughshare  was  laid  aside 
that  men  might  bless  the  Creator  while  the  land  lay  fallow.  $n-en  years  of  plenty 
and  seven  years  of  famine  were  foretold  in  Pharaoh's  dream.  Noah  had  seven  days 
warning  of  the  flood,  and  was  commanded  to  take  the  fowls  of  the  air  in  by  seven, 
and  the  clean  beasts  by  seven.  Solomon  was  seven  years  in  building  the  Temple,  at 
the  dedication  of  which  he  feasted  seven  days.  In  Scripture  are  enumerated  seven 
resurrections.  Our  Lord  spake  seven  times  on  the  cross,  on  which  he  was  seven 

*  It  might  be  suggested  that  despite  the  present  greenness  of  this  moorland  bank 
the  name  may  reflect  the  Goidelic  greine,  the  sun.  Brown  on  these  moors  is  most 
likely  the  Celtic  Iron,  a.  slope ;  and  the  local  Black  I  have  already  sufficiently  proved. 
See  Ellice's  Place  Names  of  Glengarry,  p.  105. 


235 

hour".  He  ;ip]n-;irrcl  teVtn  liiiu-s  and  alter  sci'cii  time--  M  nn  day--  '•(•lit  tin-  Holy 
(ilnist.  There  were  also  .vi-j'c;/  heavens,  (the  perfection  ot  delight)  xiTi'ii  star--,  vc7'< // 
wise  men,  ,s< -.•'('//  champion--  of  Christendom,  .M  -.-•/•;/  deadly  sins,  and  AVTVV/  sacraments 
in  tlic  Holy  Catholic  Church.  The  seven  churches  i>t  the  Celtic  priesthood  was  a 
continuation  of  the  same  idea  of  religious  perfection,  and  there  were  Sfi'i'H  churches 
at  (Jargrave  (according-  to  tradition)  on  the  north-west  side  of  Rumbald's  Moor. 
The  xi-.'O/t/i  son  of  a  family  has  always  been  held  in  Craven  to  be  supernaturallv 
endowed,  and  there  is  an  entry  to  this  effect  in  the  Skipton  registers  for  1664.  Such 
is  the  sacred  and  perfect  number  sii'di.  (  >n  the  Green  ( 'rat;'  stone  are  parallel  rows  of 
cups  on  the  outside  of  the  groove.  Such  an  orderly  arrangement  of  rock-marking's 
in  this  form  is,  I  believe,  unknown  elsewhere.  A, r  I'late  opposite. 

».  About  twenty  yards  from  the  last  are  on  Green  ('raff  three  immense  boulders,  each 
bearing-  cup-marks. 

10.  Some  200  yards  south-east  of  these   is  a  curious   pillar-like  stone,  having1  curiously- 
weathered  llu ting's  down  its  sides,  while  the  top  presents  a  ridged,  uneven  surface, 
like  a  number  of  small  cones.      It  is  known  as  the  Idol  Rock. 

11.  About  250  yards  south-east  again,  on  Qrecn  Crag,  is  a  large  old  boundary-stone, 
inscribed    "T.I'.,     \V.M.,     1785,"   and    it    bears    live    basin-shaped    incisions    on    it. 
Kastward   of   Creen   Crag   runs   Woo  fa   Bank.       There   is  a    Woo  fa    Bank    between 
Silsden  and   Draughton,    west  of   Counter   Hill;    and  a  Woof   Stones  on   Cowling- 
Moor.      L'lpha  Church  in  Cumberland  is  called  by  the  older  country  folk,  "  Oopha 
Kirk,"   hence  our  Woofa   may   be  a  dialectal  form  of  Vlpha.       .SVr  \nrtli  I.onsdale 
.\/<i.if.,  II.   17. 

u.  Crossing  the  level  ground  from  the  last-named,  about  a  half-mile  southwards  we 
come  to  a  long  and  conspicuous  ridge  of  glacial  debris,  part  of  a  lateral  moraine, 
running-  east  and  west,  or  parallel  with  the  valley,  for  more  than  half-a-mile.  The 
debris  has  contained  a  very  large  percentage  of  limestone  boulders  and  black 
chert  from  the  limestone  country  of  the  upper  Dale.  The  ridge  in  every  part  has 
been  turned  over,  forming  a  series  of  heaps  and  hollows  whence  the  limestone 
has  been  extracted  and  burnt  in  primitive  kilns  on  the  spot.  The  remains  of  these 
kilns  may  still  be  seen.  The  ridge  has  probably  been  dug  or  di-h'cd  in  the  i6th 
and  171!)  centuries,  as  described  on  pp.  241--;  of  my  CkrontdeS  of  Old  Bingley.  The 
spot  is  known  as  Lanshaw  Delves,  which  Forrest  and  Grainge  mistook  for  a  British 
village.  The  name  is  probably  a  contraction  of  Langshaw  (A.S.  Innif  itvW), 
indicating  the  site  of  old  forest-land,  and  in  a  citation  of  the  boundaries  of  the 
manor  of  Ilkley  in  (1500)  it  is  written  "  Langshawe  Ladde."  There  is  a  Langshaw 
Bank  at  l.angbar  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  anil  set-  also  p.  122. 

i;v  Last  o)  above  is  Lanshaw  Dam,  formed  in  the  bed  of  an  old  glacial  tarn.  The 
moor-becks  are  drained  into  it. 

14.  North   of  this  point  is  a  cairn  (originally  100  yards  in  circumference)  known  as  the 
Great  Skirtful  of  Stones,  a  burial  cairn  of  some  forgotten  chief. 

"  Heap  the  stones  of  my  renown, 

And  let  them  speak  to  other  days,"  is  the  cry  of  Ossian. 

In  the  middle  of  it  stands  an  old  boundary-stone  on  which  is  cut,  "Walter 
Hawksworth.  This  is  Rumbles  La  we.  — Mr.  Wardell  says  that  it  was  8^  feet  in 
diameter  and  5  to  6  feet  in  height,  in  1869. 

15.  South   of  this  and  not  far  from   the   Dam   is  the  Little  Skirtful  of  Stones,   which 
tradition  says  was  let  fall  by  the  aforementioned  giant  Rumbalds,  while  hastening 
to   build   a   bridge    over    the   Wharfe.      See  Dr.    Richardson's   letter  (A.D.    1709)  in 
llearne's  ed.  of  I. eland's  ///';/.  Vol.  I.  p.   143. 

i<>.  South  ol  the  last  is  the  familiar  Qrubstone  Shooting  Tower,  which  it  it  cannot  be 
strictly  regarded  as  an  "antiquity"  is  by  no  means  a  recent  erection,  while  it  is 
associated  with  many  valuable  "finds."  Upon  this  elevated  tract  of  flat  ground 
a  larger  number  of  (lints,  in  the  shape  of  arrow-heads,  knives,  hammers,  and  stone 
implements  have  been  picked  up  than  on  any  other  part  of  the  moor. 


236 

17-    Near  the  Shooting  Tower  are  several  cup-marked  rocks. 
18.  -To  the  S.E.  is  a  stone  circle  about  80  feet  in  circumference. 

IQ.  A  good  half-mile  east  is  a  group  of  barrows,  both  of  the  round  and  long-  types. 
Described  by  FmTcst  and  Crainge  in   Tart   III.  r.l  Kitmbalds  Moor,  (1869). 

20.  South  of  this  we  reach  the  Horncliffe  Keeper's  House,  near  to  which  on  Hawksworth 
Moor  is  a  Stone  Circle,  figured  and  described  in  my  Chronicles  &>c.  of  Old  ft  in  ff lev. 

21.  About  ten   feet  above   the  circle  is  a  stone  six   feet   square   and    two   feet   thick 
bearing  cups  on  its  edge.      On  the  top  of  the  ridge  above  Horncliffe  is  a  large 
barrow,  or  tumulus. 

22.  At  the  summit  of  the  main  road  over  the  moor  from  Kldwick  to  Ilkley,  and  a  little 
to  the   rig-ht  of  the  road,   is  another  Stone  Circle  of  twelve  upright  fragments  and 
boulders  known  as  the  Twelve  Apostles.     Constantine  the  Great  (who  is  so  closely 
associated  with  this  district),  surrounded  the  Holy  Sepulchre  with  12  pillars,  after 
the  number  of  the  Apostles.     Many  pillar-stones  employed  in  the  service  of  pagan 
ritual  were  afterwards  used  as  Christian  memorials.       Many  circles  are  found  to 
consist  of  12  stones  or  multiplies  of  12,  as  at  Stonehenge  (60)  and  it  is  consequently 
assumed  that  they  represent  the  12  signs  of  the  Zodiac,  or  24  hours'  time  circle. 
But  see  Professor  Petrie's  Stoitehenge :    its  Plaits,  Descriptions  and  Theories  (1880) 
and   Mr.   Edgar  Barclay's  Stonehenge  and  its  Earthworks  (1895),    the   two  ablest 
contributions  to  this  subject  of  recent  years. 

23.  About  300  yards  to  the  south,  or  Eldwick  side  of  last-named,  is  an  ancient  boundary- 
stone  known  as  Lanshaw  Lad.      In  Anglo-Saxon  lad  signifies  a  way  or  journey  also 
in  Lappenberg's  History  of  England  under  the  Anglo-Saxons  (Thorpe's  translation) 
it  is  interpreted  as  a  supplying  of  beasts  of  burden  for  a  journey,  or  the  service  ot 
finding  the  lords  with  beasts  of  burden.     I.ad-man,  a  leader,  a  guide.     In  Calderdale 
there  is  a   "Lads  Lowe"  and  near  it  "Toby's  Cave."     See  Dearden's  Star  Seer  p. 
133.      There  is  a  stone  pillar  on  the  Lower  Brown  Knowl  marked  "Lad  of  Law," 
on  the  boundary  of  the  manor  of  Midgley.     See  Leeds  Mercury  Supplement  (X.  &  Q. 
No.  978),  October  2nd,  1897. 

24.  A  good  half-mile  east  of  above,  and  on  Lanshaw  Delves,  is  another  old  boundary- 
stone  latterly  called  by  way  of  comparison  with  above,  Lanshaw  Lass. 

25.  About   a    mile    south-west   of   Lanshaw  Lad,  on  the  same  boundary,  is  the  Ashlar 
Chair,  a  very  ancient  land  mark,  at  the  junction  of  four  ownerships.     The  stone  is 
couch-shaped  about  seven  feet  long,  open  to  the  south,  and  is  sometimes  spoken  of 
as  the  Druids'  Chair.     It  bears  numerous  cups  and  channels. 

26.  A  few  yards  to  the  east  is  a  curious  rock  about  fourteen  feet  long  and  five  feet  broad, 
bearing  cups  and  grooves  on  its  topmost  angle. 

27.  Between  the  Ashlar  Chair  and  moor-road  from  Keighley  to  Ilkley  are  a  couple  of 
large  isolated  boulders  known  as  Two  Eggs,  though  by  no  means  egg-shaped.     One 
is  almost  square,   measuring  over  forty  yards  in  circumference,  and  the  other  is 
fourteen  feet  long  and  about  eight  feet  high.     Both  are  channelled  and  bear  cups. 

28.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  road,  a  good  half-mile  west  of  the  last  named,  is  part  of 
a  Stone  Circle.      It  is  in  the  corner  of  a  piece  of  enclosed  land  and  about  a  dozen  of 
the  stones  are  still  in  situ. 

29.  A  half-mile  due  north  of  Two  Eggs  stand  a  group  of  rocks  known  as  Thimble 
Stones,  bearing  cups  and  grooves. 

30.  A  little  north  of  the  last-named  is  a  large  barrow,  about  150  yards  in  circumference. 

31.  On  the  moor  a  short  distance  to  the  left  of  the  road  going  to  Ilkley,  stands  tin- 
conspicuous  Cowper  Cross.      No  satisfactory  explanation   has  been  given  of   the 
origin  of  this  old  stone  cross.      It  stands  in  proximity  to  the  Roman  road,  but  has 
nothing  Roman  about  it.      The  shaft  has  originally  been  a  plain  obelisk  and  has 
been  broken  at  the  top  and  formed  into  a  Latin  cross.     It  may  have  been  erected 
by  some  member  of  the  Cowper  family,  who  were  numerous  all  round  this  wide 


• 

ml  ring  < 


/DHOUSE   CRAG. 


form   to  a  tetraskelion  engraved  on  a  wooden  button,  clasp  or  libula,  covered   with 
gold  plates,  found  at  Mycena-,  and  figured    No.   161    in  Mr.  Wilson's  monograph. 

The  Swastika  is  almost  unknown  among  Christian  peoples,  but  it  occurs  on  all 
the  sacred  foot-prints  of  Buddha,  and  may  be  seen  on  the  cast  of  Buddha's  feet  in 
the  Indian  Museum,  London.  Dr.  Schliemann  found  it  engraved  upon  a  very  large- 
number  of  spindle-whorls  unearthed  at  Troy,  as  well  as  on  other  objects  at  Mycena-. 
The  Ilkley  device  is  explained  by  Mr.  Allen  to  be  a  modification  made  by  doubling 
the  lines  and  curving  the  arms.  It  is  noteworthy,  says  Mr.  Thomas  Wilson  of 
the  U.S.  National  Museum,  that  while  in  modern  times  the  Swastika  is  practically 
unknown  among  Christians,  the  fret,  chevron,  herring-bone,  crosses,  and  circles  ot 
every  kind,  have  remained  in  use  since  Neolithic  times,  but  no  Swastika.  The  latest 
use  mentioned  in  the  literature  upon  this  subject  appears  to  have  been  in  the 
Archepiscopal  chair  in  the  cathedral  at  Milan,  which  bears  the  three  ancient 
Christian  crosses,  the  Latin  cross,  the  monogram  of  Christ,  and  the  Swastika,  Hut 
it  has  not  died  out  all  over  the  world.  It  is  still  in  use  in  Lapland  and  Finland  and 
has  continued  in  use  among  the  Orientals. 

There  may  possibly  be  others  not  enumerated  in  this  list,  as  there 
are  also  a  great  many  of  a  similar  character  on  the  adjoining  moors. 

Various  theories  have  been  advanced  respecting  the  origin, 
meaning,  and  age  of  these  remarkable  carved  rocks.  Their  association 
with  the  many  wild  conjectures  on  the  fiery  rites  of  the  Druids 
must  be  dismissed.*  No  doubt  they  are  all  born  of  primitive 
Nature  worship,  in  which  the  sun,  as  the  all-giving  sustenance,  has 
through  countless  ages  taken  the  principal  part.  But  it  must  not 
therefore  be  assumed  that  they  are  monuments  carved  in  honour  of 
the  visible  sun,  or  direct  symbolical  offerings  to  the  sun,  as  many  of 
them  are  found  in  places  that  the  sun  never  touches.  But  the  sun 
as  the  chief  factor  in  Nature  is  at  the  root  of  this  worship  and  was 
honored  in  most  religious  rites  by  all  the  ancient  nations  and  in  our 
own  country  by  the  Celtic  and  Teutonic  settlers  markedly  so.  Mr. 
Allen,  in  referring  to  the  Ilkley  stones,  believes  the  cup  and  ring  to 
be  "  the  symbol  of  some  deity,  perhaps  the  sun-god,  who  is  indicated 
by  substituting  a  cup  and  ring  for  his  head."  Others  hold  the  same 
view.  In  the  evolution  of  paganism  and  Christianity  we  have  the 
same  idea  expressed  in  the  nimbus  of  the  glorified  Christ  and  the 
saints.  Likewise  in  the  evolution  of  the  cross  from  the  primitive 
crux  ansata,  probably  represented  in  the  Ilkley  rocks  (as  it  is  in  an 
altered  form  on  a  late  capital  in  the  pre-Conquest  Church  at  Weston 
over  the  river)  and  in  the  five  glorified  wounds  the  symbolism  is 
continued.!  Unfortunately  no  traditions  survive  in  respect  to  the 

*  Although  in  Celtic  worship  the  doctrine  of  atonement  by  blood  did  exist,  and 
the  belief  in  burning  alive  prevailed  in  Ireland  in  much  the  same  manner  as  in  India,  a 
form  and  ritual  in  fact  attributed  to  the  Britons  by  Caesar.  See  Cormack's  Glossary  by 
Whitley  Stokes,  page  63  (Irish  Archael.  Society). 

f  Mr.  Pugin  in  his  Glossary  of  Ecclesiastical  Ornament  gives  plates  (undated)  in 
which  the  five  wounds  are  symbolised  by  five  crosses  flory,  glorified  with  rays  and 
crowns  ;  and  also  proper,  with  the  sacred  blood  flowing  into  chalices.  Is  not  the 
same  idea  represented  on  the  ancient  arms  of  Christ  (a  shield  of  twenty  quarterings) 
preserved  in  the  Cathedral  of  Mayence?  The  Mass  of  the  Five  Wounds  is  shewn  to 
be  as  old  as  the  8th  century,  and  probably  belongs  to  a  still  more  ancient  ritual. 


239 

Ilklev  stones,  .UK!  MI  f.ir  .-is  I  can  discover  very  few  exist  in  other 
parts  of  Britain.  The  natives  around  Dartmoor  tell  you  that  the 
rock-basins  there  were  used  by  the  Jews  to  keep  their  money  in 
when  they  paid  their  workmen  in  the  tin-mines.  But  this  is  obviously 
a  verv  practical  modern  tradition  and  has  nothing  whatever  to  do 
with  Nature  or  sun  worship. 

The  Ojibbawa  Indians  regard  the  concentric  circles  as  the 
symbols  of  time,  out  of  which  is  evolved  the  sacred  circle  of  eternity.* 
And  this  brings  us  back  again  to  the  sun,  the  symbol  for  which  as 
used  by  the  Chinese,  as  well  as  by  other  nations,  is  a  circle  with  a 
dot  in  the  centre;  afterwards  it  was  a  ring  enclosing  a  cross, 
representing  its  rays.  Thence  was  evolved  the  wheel  of  the  sun-car 
and  a  rude-boat  (like  the  golden  bowl  given  to  Hercules  by  Apollo) 
is  the  sun-ship  (which  led  to  the  adoption  of  the  navis  for  the  longer 
part  of  the  Christian  Church),  and  so  on  multiplying  into  a  great 
variety  of  complicated  devices.  Three  converging  rays  indicate  the 
in)  stic  triad,  and  bent  or  hooked  at  the  ends  become  the  triquetra,  a 
sacred  emblem  in  many  mythologies,  and  presented  in  various  ways.f 
One  of  the  most  interesting  of  its  later  developments  (probably  of 
the  Iron  Age,  if  not  later,  as  working  on  millstone-grit  is  not  like 
carving  on  metal)}:  appears  on  the  now  famous  Woodhouse  Crag 
rock  above  Ilkley,  shewn  in  the  illustration  on  page  237.  The 
same  figure  may  have  come  down  to  us  in  the  peculiar  form  of  three 
human  legs  conjoined  and  still  used  in  the  civic  arms  of  the  Isle 
of  Man,  though  some  contend  the  latter  are  an  importation  of  the 
triskelion  from  Sicily. 

Again,  the  figure  8  is  the  sun-snake,  connected  with  several  sets 
of  early  cults,  and  representing  the  vivifying  powers  of  Nature. 
These  combined  into  a  line  make  a  rope  pattern,  into  a  double  line 
the  plait,  which  however  readily  derived  from  other  necessities  of 
manufacture,  are  thus  adapted  to  the  service  of  mystic  symbolism. § 
And  thus  from  the  mystic  triad  or  triquetra  and  sun-snake  we  get 
those  beautiful  designs  so  exquisitely  carved  on  our  early  Christian 
crosses,  of  which  the  Wharfedale  examples  at  Ilkley  and  Otley  are 
the  most  notable.  On  bronze  ornaments  of  the  primitive  lake- 
dwellers  the  triquetra  is  also  engraved. 

With  regard  to  the  precise  meaning  of  every  form  of  rock 
sculpture,  nothing  positive  can  be  advanced  until  we  are  in  possession 
of  most  of  the  facts  and  traditions  relating  to  them  in  other  parts  of 

A.  e  1'ninx.  of  the  IMHC.  and  Cheshire  Ant.  .S'wr.  (1889)  on  the  astromical  theory  of 
tin-  Ilklt-y  rock-markings. 

I  .Sec  Collingwood'.s  I'hilnsopliy  <>f  Ornamrnl  (1883)  page  14. 

;  I  hid  \i.  109.  Merc  crude-ness  is  no  criterion  of  antiquity  any  more  than  the 
ili-covcry  ot  a  Him  <>r  stout-  weapon  can  be  -aid  to  belong  to  that  particular  age.  In 
Fiji,  t<>r  example,  the  natives  were  living  in  the  Stone  Age  almost  up  to  our  annexation 
of  the  island  in  1874.  .V.r  the  chapter  on  Cl  I.IK  (  IKASSIXC;  I  ox.  :<  Ibid  page  14. 


246 

the  world.  Amongst  the  North  American  Indians  and  in  parts  of 
Asia,  the  cup  depressions  and  furrows  are  known  to  be  connected 
with  the  universal  desire  for  posterity,  as  sanctioned  by  Nature 
through  the  all-giving  life  of  the  sun.*  On  the  other  hand  single 
cup-stones  in  some  places,  notably  in  Scandinavia,  are  associated 
with  the  sacred  rites  of  burial.  The  cups  are  filled  with  an  unctuous 
preparation,  which  on  being  ignited  produces  a  slow-burning  fume, 
and  as  this  ascends  the  spirit  of  the  deceased  is  believed  to  be  aided 
in  its  journey  to  the  better  sphere.  There  is  little  doubt  but  that 
this  belief  is  a  survival  of  some  primitive  cults  which  have  existed 
and  may  still  exist  among  Eastern  tribes. f  The  doctrine  of  the 
ascending  spirit  and  of  after-life  is,  of  course,  older  than  Christianity. 
Plato,  the  great  Athenian  philosopher,  living  400  years  before  Christ, 
recognized  this  doctrine,  then  old  enough  to  be  well-known,  that 
Death  is  but  the  Gate  of  Life.  "  My  body,"  he  says,  "  must  descend 
to  the  place  ordained,  but  my  soul  will  not  descend.  There  is  no  such 
thing  as  death,  it  is  only  change  from  one  condition  to  another." 

This  leads  me  now  to  consider  briefly  the  cause  of  the  present 
being  and  status  of  Ilkley,  as  illustrated  by  the  story  of  these 
wonderful  stones,  of  which  the  town  of  Ilkley  ought  to  be  justly 
proud  and  every  endeavour  made  to  spare  and  preserve  them.  My 
impression  is  that  lying  chiefly  along  the  line  of  crags  overlooking 
the  present  town  (how  many  have  perished  or  have  been  destroyed, 
I  know  not)  they  mark  the  position  and  strength  of  the  original 
Goidelic  settlement  during  the  Bronze  Age.  As  similar  inscriptions 
are  now  found  among  primitive  people  throughout  the  world,  but 
chiefly  in  the  East,  it  is  evident  that  so  far  as  Britain  is  concerned 
the  same  people  on  a  westward  migration  brought  the  practice  with 
them.  I  can  indeed  see  no  reason  why  the  practice  should  not  have 
survived  at  Ilkley  until  the  Cymric-Celtic  occupation,  as  Goidel  and 
Brython  were  so  intimately  related,  and  only  on  the  Roman  or 
perhaps  the  great  Teutonic  irruption,  with  its  alien  rites,  in  the  fifth 

*  The  following  volumes,  amongst  others,  (privately  printed)  have  appeared  on 
this  aspect  of  the  question:  (i)  Ophiolatreia:  Rites  and  Mysteries  connected  with 
Serpent  Worship,  with  traditions,  serpent  mounds  and  temples,  a  phase  of  Phallic  or 
Sex  Worship.  Crown  8vo.  (1889)  (2)  Archaic  Rock  Inscriptions,  an  account  of  the  cup 
and  ring  markings  on  the  sculptured  stones  of  the  Old  and  New  Worlds.  Front.  Cr. 
8vo.  (1891)  (3)  A  description  of  the  Worship  of  Lingham-Yoni,  with  account  of  ancient 
and  modern  Crosses,  Crux  Ansata,  and  other  symbols  of  Sex  Worship.  Cr.  8vo. 
(1892)  (4)  Fishes,  Flowers,  and  Fire,  as  Elements  and  Deities  in  the  Phallic  Faiths  and 
Worship  of  the  Ancient  Religions  of  Greece,  Babylon,  Rome,  India  &c.,  with  illustrated 
myths  and  legends  (1892).  In  Williams  and  Rowe's  Fiji  and  the  Fijians  (1858)  cups  and 
rings  are  associated  with  a  debased  and  degraded  form  of  Nature  worship.  Pillar 
stones  were  the  recognized  symbols  of  propitiation  or  memorial  in  the  time  of  Jacob, 
and  stone  Ezels  were  known  in  the  days  of  David  and  Jonathan. 

f  In  Mr.  Rivett-Carnac's  Ancient  Sculpt  lit  Ings  on  Rocks  at  Kainaon,  a  province 
lying  in  the  shadow  of  the  Himalayas,  he  shows  how  some  of  these  archaic  markings 
are  connected  with  native  religions  in  India. 


24! 

<vntur\,  \voulil  their  use  be  abandoned  and  in  time  forgotten.*  I 
have  elsewhere  said  sufficient  to  justify  the  Goidelic  occupation  of 
the  Ilkley  Crags  as  far  hack  as  the  Bronze  Age.  The  Bronze  Age 
led  that  of  Iron,  and  the  early  iron-using  people  came  into 
England  probably  from  South  Germany"  about  300-200  i;.c. 

1  shall  now  contend  that  from  the  Goiclel  to  the  second  Celtic 
conquest  \ve  are  brought  down  to  this  period,  and  that  at  this  era  the 
Celtic  settlements  on  Rumbakls  Moor  and  the  adjacent  commons 
were  amongst  the  most  important  in  the  North  of  England.  What 
may  have  been  the  rites  or  practices  prevalent  on  these  high  lands  at 
this  era  is  not,  as  I  have  remarked,  sufficiently  known.  Nor  dare  we 
say  much  of  the  stones  themselves.  Whatever  may  be  their  relative 
position  in  other  places,  at  Ilkley  they  mostly  lie  along  the  moor 
having  an  outlook  to  the  east,  and  if  there  be  any  meaning  in  this,  it 
is  interesting  to  note  again  how  Christian  symbolism  is  based  on  older 
custom,  for  all  our  churches  are  made  to  point  to  the  rising  sun,  the 
symbol  of  the  Christian's  Saviour  and  of  his  future  expectations. f 
I  think  there  is  little  doubt  that  apart  from  any  religious  significance, 
the  strength  of  this  Celtic  settlement  was  the  prime  factor  in  the 
Roman  Conquest  here,  and  the  motive  for  fixing  their  station  lower 
down  in  the  usual  position  beside  the  river.  I  am  not  aware  that 
even  a  single  relic  other  than  of  a  Roman  or  of  a  Romano-Celtic 
character  has  ever  been  found  on  or  near  the  site  of  the  Roman 
camp,  and  the  same  may  likewise  be  said  of  Grassington,  to  which 
many  Britons  withdrew.  The  steady  retention  of  the  site  by  an 
increased  population  on  the  Roman  evacuation  subsequently  led  to 
the  Anglo-Saxon  seizure.  The  flight  of  the  Britons  once  more  to  the 
hills,  their  ultimate  amalgamation  until  the  religious  controversy  of 
A.D.  664,  again  divided  the  race  ;  the  building  of  the  Christian  church 
before  the  Normans  came  in  1066,  and  the  growth  of  Ilkley  to  the 
present  time,  I  have  already  elucidated.  And  this  may  be  said  to  be 
entirely  due  to  the  original  settlement  on  the  Ilkley  moors,  whose 
primitive  memorials — the  very  basis  of  Ilkley's  existence,  and  indeed 
of  her  prosperity — are  still  with  us,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  will  long  be 
preserved  to  a  still  more  enlightened  and  appreciative  posterity. 

As  the  present-day  guardians  of  these  precious  memorials  of 
Old  Ilkley  the  District  Council  are  primarily  responsible  for  their  safe 
keeping.  The  time  may  come  when  points  not  now  observed  may 
require  close  scrutiny  of  the  stones  themselves  which  photographs  or 
rubbings  of  them  may  not  reveal.  Some  of  them  have  been 
uncovered  from  beneath  live,  six,  and  even  ten  feet  of  peat.  When  bared 

Sec  an  article  by  Mr.  H.  W.  Young  F. S.A.,  on  the  Elgin  Stones  in  tin-  Reliquary 
for  January  1897,  in  which  lie  traces  tin-  connection  between  the  cup  and  ring  marks 
and  certain  symbols  prevalent  in  Scotland  as  late  as  the  beginning  of  the  Christian 
period. 

f  Sec  1'oole  on  Ecclesiastical  Symbolism, 


242 

of  this  protective  clothing  the  inscriptions  were  in  several  examples  as 
fresh  almost  as  the  day  when  first  cut.  But  the  heavy  moor-rains 
and  sun-heat  are  gradually  but  surely  effacing  the  sculptures.  In  the 
case  of  the  Green  Grag  stone,  the  Woodhouse  Crag  swastika-rock  and 
the  "cup  and  ladder''  stone  before  St.  Margaret's  Church,  would  it  not 
be  well  to  have  them  temporarily  covered  in?  The  last-named  might 
be  placed  under  a  liftable  lid  or  beneath  a  low  sloping  awning  to 
carry  off  the  rain,  and  in  such  a  position  that  it  may  still  be  open  to 
the  inspection  of  visitors. 

With  regard  to  No.  12  of  the  list,  this  lateral  moraine  can  be 
traced  nearly  to  Hawksworth,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  present 
Ilkley  Tarn  was  originally  a  small  morainic  lake,  enlarged  when  the 
present  encompassing  walks  were  laid  out.  Ice-groovings  are  still 
discernible  on  rock  surfaces  near  the  Cow  and  Calf,  parallel  with  the 
lateral  moraine,  but  no  ice-markings  have  been  discovered  at  a  higher 
elevation  than  the  Lanshaw  Delves,  which  apparently  marks  the 
westward  limit  of  the  ice-flow  down  the  valley.  Between  Menston 
and  Yeadon  the  accumulations  of  glacial  debris  are  considerable. 
On  the  east  side  of  the  valley  moraine  detritus  may  be  seen  in  long 
mounds  running  from  Langbar,  parallel  with  the  valley  southwards 
to  Askwith  and  Weston.  Another  linear  rubbish-bank  extends  from 
Middleton  towards  Denton,  where  it  curves  to  and  crosses  the  river 
at  Escroft,  forming  the  only  ascent  on  the  road  from  Burley  to  Ben 
Rhydding,  and  which  must  have  originally  dammed  back  the  river, 
forming  a  large  lake.  The  composing  debris  includes  boulders  of 
limestone  and  grit  from  the  higher  reaches  of  the  valley,  and  as  in 
Airedale  down  to  Shipley,  occasional  boulders  and  fragments  of 
Silurian  origin  from  Ribblesdale  may  be  picked  up. 

Long  and  varied  as  is  the  history  of  this  wide  and  accessible 
moorland,  yet  another  important  fragment  of  history  attaches  to  it. 
In  1872  it  was  selected  by  the  War  Office  as  the  site  of  a  great 
military  encampment  in  Yorkshire.  The  engineers  reported  there 
was  not  such  another  suitable  site  in  Great  Britain.  An  extent  of 
five  or  six  miles  in  length  was  fixed  upon,  and  either  the  Government 
or  the  Midland  Railway  Co.  would  have  had  to  make  two  branch 
lines  to  Rumbalds  Moor,  one  from  Bingley  by  Morton  and  the  other 
from  Guiseley.  A  canal  wharf  for  cannon  and  war  material  was  to 
have  been  made  between  Bingley  and  Morton,  and  nine  stations 
erected  within  five  miles  of  the  moor,  to  which  troops  could  be 
simultaneously  marched,  and  100,000  men,  horses,  cannon,  etc., 
could  be  despatched  to  Barrow,  for  Ireland,  or  to  any  other  part  of 
England  within  twenty-four  hours.  It  was  to  have  been  a  great 
depot  for  war  material,  and  permanent  barracks  for  two  regiments  of 
infantry  and  one  regiment  of  cavalry.  It  was  intended  to  camp 
60,000  to  80,000  on  the  moor  every  summer. 

Considerable  local  opposition  to  the  proposal  followed,  and  on 


243 

Jan.  yth,  1873,  at  a  largely  attended  meeting  of  the-  inhabitants  of 
Ilkle\.  a  resolution  was  adopted  condemnatory  of  the  scheme,  and  a 
memorial  was  drawn  up  and  forwarded  to  tin-  Secretary  of  War. 
K\entually  Rumbalds  Moor  was  in  veil  up  and  the  present  site  at 
Streiisall  Common,  near  York,  adopted  instead.  No  one  can  now 
doubt  the  wisdom  of  that  decision.  The  Ilkley  Moors  are  a  grand 
and  unpolluted  breathing-ground  to  a  vast  surrounding  population, 
and  to  this  health-giving  moorland,  with  its  priceless  antiquities,  the 
prosperity  of  Ilkley  is  almost  entirely  due.  And  while  the  open  moor 
with  its  amplitude  of  air  ami  sky,  is  above  all  others  the  place 
where  one  might  expect  to  enjoy  the  calm  and  freedom  of  Nature 
without  restraint,  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  an  ever-increasing  number 
of  visitors  has  rendered  some  restrictions  necessary.  Visitors  are 
now  bound  to  limit  their  perambulations  to  certain  well-defined 
foot-paths,  which  are  prescribed  by  notice-boards  on  various  parts  of 
the  moor. 

On  several  occasions  the  moor  has  been  the  scene  of  disastrous 
conflagrations.  Perhaps  the  most  serious  of  these  occurred  in  the 
very  dry  summer  of  1826,  when  upwards  of  500  acres  were  burnt  on 
Ilkley  Moor,  and  Hawksworth  Moor  was  entirely  consumed.  The 
flames  raged  for  over  a  week  and  in  the  night-time  looked  weirdly 
grand  ,  the  sky  being  reddened  with  the  glow  for  many  miles  around! 


CHAPTER     XVI. 


AROUND    ILK  LEV. 

Great  changes  about  Ilkley — Hebers'  Gill,    formerly    Black   Beck — An    ancient    tribal 
boundary — Silver  Well — Hollin  Hall— The  Hebers,   Maudes,  and  Currers — Ilkley 
Bridge — Myddelton  Lodge  and  the  Middletons     The  late  William  Middleton  Esq. 
His  private  benevolence — Sale  of  part  of  the  Myddelton  estate. 

CHANGE  more  sweeping  and  sudden  could  hardly 
be  found  anywhere  than  that  witnessed  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  old  Green  Lane  of  only  a  few 
years  back.  In  place  of  straggling  thatched  farms  and 
humble  cottages,  there  is  the  present  Grove  Road,  a 
handsome,  well-laid  carriage-drive,  with  its  rows  of  stately  villas, 
leading  towards  Hebers'  Gill  (I  prefer  the  true  Norse  spelling  to  the 
Cumbrian  distortion,  ghyll)  \  This  side  of  Ilkley  has  been  from 
earliest  times,  old  forest-land  extending  far  up  to  the  moor.  Not 
very  long  ago  a  trunk  of  black  bog-oak  was  dug  up  in  the  Grove  at 
a  depth  of  16  feet  from  the  surface,  and  a  piece  of  it,  forty  inches 
long,  is  now  in  the  Museum.  The  picturesque  moor-side  stream, 
Hebers'  Gill,  with  its  rustic  bridges  and  convenient  seats,  so  familiar 
to  Ilkley  visitors,  was  formerly  known  as  Black  Beck.  This  is  a 
very  interesting  name,  which  carries  us  back  far  beyond  the  days  of 
the  Hebers  or  any  other  local  family,  even  unto  the  time  of  the  first 
Celtic  dwellers  in  these  parts.  It  helps  to  confirm  what  I  have 
advanced  in  the  last  chapter  respecting  the  occupation  of  Ilkley 
during  the  Bronze  Age,  for  this  word,  black,  is  a  modern  contraction 
of  the  Goidelic  (Irish)  bealach,  a  boundary,  or  passage  from  one 
land-claim  to  another.  The  word  also  helps  us  to  determine  what 
have  been  the  old  Celtic  tribal  divisions,  many  of  which  are  retained 
as  boundaries  to  this  day.  But  here  the  ancient  boundary  has  not 
been  retained  -}  it  passes  a  little  to  the  west  of  Black  Beck  (Hebers' 
Gill)  and  comes  down  near  Hollin  Hall,  which  is  in  Ilkley  parish. 
A  little  west  of  it  and  we  are  in  Addingham.  At  the  top  of  Hebers' 
Gill  is  a  spring  of  very  pure  water,  called  Silver  Well,  which  it  is  not 
unlikely  was  an  old  Celtic  tutelary  spring,  and  bits  of  metal  or  other 
articles  may  have  been  thrown  into  it  as  offerings  for  protection  from 
the  saint  or  presiding  genius  of  the  well.  St.  Helen's  Well  near 
Gargrave,  and  St.  Helen's  Well,  near  Thorp  Arch,  are  of  this  class. 
In  the  general  transition  of  religious  belief  many  of  these  sacred 
springs  received  Christian  dedications. 

Hollin  Hall  is  a  very  interesting  old  place.     It  formerly  belonged 
to  Hexham  Priory  and  is  associated  with  many  notable  families,  such 


245 

as  the  Maudes,  Currers  and  Hebers.  It  is  often  said  that  the 
celebrated  Bishop  Heber  was  born  here,  but  this  is  quite  a  mistake. 
He  was  of  the  same  stock  as  the  Hollin  Hall  Hebers,  but  as  a 
matter  of  fact  was  born  at  Malpas  in  Cheshire  where  his  father  was 
rector.  Parties  driving  this  way  to  and  from  Ilkley  are  frequently 
told  that  this  was  the  birthplace  of  Bishop  Heber,  but  there  is  at 
least  one  "cabby"  in  Ilkley  who  knows  better.  He  was  taking  an 
interested  party  for  a  drive  along  the  Addingham  road  when  he 
suddenly  pulled  up  in  front  of  the  old  house,  and  exclaimed,  "Ladies 
and  ge'men,  this  is  not  the  birthplace  of  Bishop  Heber,  as  you'll 
sometimes  hear,  it  was  his  grandfather  who  was  born  here."  Not  a 


HOLLIN    HALL. 

bad  shot  for  Jehu,  though  still  something  off  the  mark.  Bishop 
Heber  died  in  1826  at  the  early  age  of  41,  and  was  descended  from 
the  old  Marton-in-Craven  family ;  his  grandfather,  Thomas  Heber 
having  been  born  at  Marton  Hall  and  died  there  in  1752.  He  was 
great-great-grandson  of  Thomas  Heber,  of  Marton,  who  died  in  1659, 
whose  father,  Thomas,  removed  from  Stainton  to  Marton,  and  was 
treasurer  for  lame  soldiers  in  the  time  of  James  I.  He  died  in  1633, 
His  younger  brother,  Reginald  Heber,  resided  at  Hollin  Hall,  near 
Ilkley,  and  died  there  in  1653.  His  grandson  Thomas  Heber  of 
Hollin  Hall,  born  1670,  was  a  scapegrace,  and  when  a  young  man 
was  concerned  in  a  burglary  freak  at  Ilkley  and  narrowly  escaped 


246 

hanging.  What  became  of  him  in  after-life  is  not  known,  but  perhaps 
an  entry  in  the  churchwardens'  accounts  at  Bradford  may  throw 
some  light  on  the  conditions  of  his  old  age  : 

1713.     Gave  to  Mr.  Heber,  an  old  decay'd  gentl'n  p.  Vicar's  order— as.  6d. 

The  Hebers  continued  at  Hollin  Hall  for  several  generations,  and  I 
have  already  noted  some  of  their  quaint  old  brasses  in  Ilkley  Church. 

Hollin  Hall  three  or  four  hundred  years  ago  was  a  small  hamlet, 
comprising  three  substantial  homesteads,  a  cottage  and  a  watermill 
but  only  one  of  the  houses,  the  old  home  of  the  Rogers  (who  afterwards 
took  the  name  of  Rogerson),  still  stands.  It  is  now  the  property  of 
Mr.  John  Ellis,  whose  family  has  lived  here  for  the  best  part  of  a 
hundred  years.  Christopher  Ellis  settled  here  in  the  first  decade  of 
the  century,  and  his  wife,  Judith  Davis  (a  Welsh  woman)  was  well 
known  for  her  activity  of  mind  and  vigorous  constitution.  She  lived 
to  the  age  of  ninety-five.  Their  son  William  Ellis,  succeeded  to  the 
farm,  which  was  purchased  from  Mr.  Middleton  some  years  ago  by 
the  present  owner,  Mr.  John  Ellis,  who  was  born  in  the  house  and  is 
still  living  there,  now  in  his  7oth  year.  The  house,  a  Jacobean 
building,  contains  a  fine  oak-wainscotted  room,  over  the  doorway  of 
which  is  a  decorated  panel,  bearing  the  initials  and  date  TR,  ER 
1623  (Thomas  Rogers  who  died  in  1635  and  his  wife).  The  estate 
had  been  purchased  in  1567  of  Sir  Godfrey  Foljambe  (ancestor  of  the 
present  Lord  Hawkesbury)*  by  William  Rogers  (father  of  the  builder) 
Wm.  Wade,  Thomas  Maude,-f-  and  William  Currer. 

These  Maudes  and  Currers  have  a  long  and  interesting  ancestry, 
and  the  pedigree  on  pages  248-9  shews  their  connection  with  Hollin 

*  A  daughter  of  Sir  Godfrey  Foljambe  married  in  1392  Sir  Robert  Plumpton, 
brother  of  Richard  Plumpton,  of  Nesslield,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river  to  Hollin 
Hall.  (See  DC  Raiiat  Roll,  ////.  <jth  Eli?,  in.  lO-ff,  also  Cull.  Tup.  (-t.  Ceneal.  (Roberts), 
Vol.  2  p.  72).  The  above  Sir  Godfrey  was  son  and  heir  of  Sir  James  Foljambe,  Kt.  of 
Walton  and  Akhvark,  Co.  Derby,  and  married  Trothea,  daughter  of  Sir  Wm.  Tyrwhitt, 
of  Ketelbv.  Sir  James  had  a  brother  Godfrey  Foljambe,  of  Croxden,  who  died  at 
Aldwark  in  I^SQ.  He  married  Margaret,  sister  and  co-heir  of  Sir  Wm.  Fitzwilliam,  of 
Aldwark,  anil  through  her  this  Godfrey  Foljambe  inherited  another  manor  of  "  Holling 
Hall,"  in  all  probability  the  one  just  outside  Farl  Fitx.william's  park  at  Wentworth. 
Again  in  1560,  the  above  Sir  Godfrey  Foljambe  and  Trothea,  his  wife,  were  deforciants 
respecting  the  manors  of  Penistone,  Waterhall,  Holleyhall  &c.,  which  after  a  term  of 
three  days  remain  to  Francis,  son  of  James  Foljambe  Kt. ,  deceased,  for  his  life,  and 
after  his  death  to  Godfrey  and  his  heirs.  This  Holly  Hall  is  in  the  township  of  Hunshelf 
and  parish  of  Penistone. 

f  The  will  of  Thomas  Maude  of  Hollin  Hall,  dated  1602,  is  a  very  important 
document  in  the  history  of  the  family.  It  is  given  in  full  in  Hunters  MSS.  in  the 
British  Museum  (Add. :  24,476).  The  fact  that  Thomas  Maude  of  Hollin  Hall  left 
legacies  to  the  sons  of  Arthur  Maude,  of  Riddlesden,  is  assumed  by  Hunter  to  be 
evidence  of  relationship.  It  is  however  only  inference — I  may  add  that  Anthony 
Maude,  from  whom  descends  in  the  fifth  generation,  Sir  Cornwallis  Maude,  created 
Baron  Montalt,  was  sole  executor  under  the  will  of  his  cousin  the  above  Thomas 
Maude  of  Hollin  Hall. 


247 

1  lall,  and  is  continued  on  a  subsequent  page  by  tin-  marriage  in  i  754  of 
Margaret,  daughter  of  Henry  Currer,  gent.,  with  Dr.  \Vm.  Moorhouse, 
of  Skipton,  to  the  humble  author  of  this  book.  In  my  history  of 
Bingk-\  I  have  shewn  on  page  74  how  the  Montaltes  or  Maudes  of 
Riddlesden,  in  the  parish  of  Bindley,  arc  descended  from  the  Karls  of 
Northumbria,  before  the  Conquest.  Tlieir  subsequent  lineage  will  be 
found  in  the  Visitations.  Christopher  Maude,  of  Hollin  Hall,  was 
great-grandson  of  Constantine  Montalte  or  Mohaut,  who  was  living  at 
West  Riddlesden  in  1480.  Christopher  had  a  daughter,  Isabel,  who 
married  William  Currer  of  Marley,  in  Bingley  parish,  who  died  in 
1604.  In  his  will  dated  1562,  John  Maud,  of  Brandon,  (buried  in 
Harewood  Church)  mentions  "my  friend  William  Currer,  lease  of 
tenement  at  Ilkley"  who  may  be  the  same.*  His  brother  Henry 
Currer  lord  of  the  manor  of  Kildwick,  married  Ann  Wade,  of 
Addingham.  Their  son,  Hugh  Currer,  of  Marley,  purchased  the  manor 
of  Bingley  from  the  Walkers,  and  it  was  sold  by  Henry  Currer,  his 
grandson,  in  1668  to  Robert  Benson,  father  of  the  first  Lord  Bingley. 
Of  the  Moorhouses,  who  intermarried  with  the  Currers,  more  will  be 
said  when  I  come  to  deal  with  some  of  the  old  homesteads  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Bolton  Abbey. 

Later  in  the  i7th  century  a  family  named  Bolton  was  living  at 
Hollin  Hall,  and  in  the  Ilkley  registers  I  find  that  one  Wm.  Bolton,  of 
Hollin  Hall,  was  buried,  i8th  August,  1678,  "in  woollen  without 
anything  of  linnen  about  him  according  to  the  Act  of  Parliament." 
This  was  an  Act  for  encouraging  the  home  woollen-trade.  In  the 
Ilkley  registers  there  are  nearly  a  score  such  entries  in  1678. 

There  are,  by  the  way,  several  Hollin  or  Holling  Halls  in 
Yorkshire,  a  circumstance  which  has  led  to  some  confusion  amongst 
them.  There  is  a  Hollin  Hall  just  outside  Earl  Fitzwilliam's  park  at 
Wentworth,  another  about  three  miles  south  of  Ripon  (most  probably 
the  original  seat  of  the  Woodd  family  of  Langstrothdale);  a  third  is 
in  the  township  of  Warley,  three  miles  from  Halifax;  a  fourth  is  in 
the  township  of  Rathmell,  near  Settle,  whilst  there  is  a  Holly  Hall 
in  the  township  of  Hunshelf,  four  miles  from  Penistone.  There  is 
likewise  a  Hollin  Hall  in  Coquetdale  Ward,  Northumberland,  and 
another  in  Darlington  Ward,  Durham.  The  name  has  no  doubt  to 
do  with  old  holly-plantations,  which  in  former  times  were  protected 
as  a  winter  provision  for  deer  and  sheep,  as  well  as  for  necessary 
decoration  at  the  great  winter  festival  of  the  Church.  In  the 

*  Among-  the  witnesses  to  tin-  will  are  William  t'urrcr  and  Thomas  Maud, 
presumably  the  co-purchasers  of  I  lollinifhall.  In  an  Inq.  p.m.  1563,  of  the  said  John 
Maud,  it  is  affirmed  he  held  lands  and  mcs^ua^es  in  the  parishes  of  Harewood,  Hardsey, 
Ilkley,  and  he  also  held  the  rectory  of  Ilkley  of  the  Oueen  as  of  her  manor  of  Kast 
Greenwich,  and  that  William  Currer  had  taken  the  profits  of  all  the  premises,  with  a 
small  exception,  to  the  use  of  Arthur  Maude,  but  by  what  title  the  jurors  know  not, 


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Household  I'.ook  of  Lord  C'litYonl  for  1510  I  find  this  entry: 

IIM.    [Live!  the  xiiijth  (lay   <>l    May   by   the  hands  nl    Mr.   Stewart   lor  holk-n  tall  the 
la^t  wynter  in  Harden,  v.v. 

The  tree  was  anciently  known  by  the-  names  of  Hulver  and  Holme. 

Let  us  now  cross  Ilkley  Bridge  to  the  Middleton  side  of  the 
river.  \<>  <me  knows  when  the  first  bridge  was  built,  but  it  is 
marked  on  the  oldest  map  of  Yorkshire  that  is  known,  namely 
Christopher  Saxton's,  printed  in  1577.  In  1639  it  was  washed  down 
by  a  Hood,*  and  this  old  bridge  and  a  subsequent  one  stood  about 
thirty  yards  below  the  present  erection.  It  is  a  picturesque  structure 
standing  high  out  of  reach  of  the  great  floods  that  sweep  with  such 


Low    HALL,    ILKLEY. 


impetuosity  down  the  valley.  Occasionally  fine  limestone  corals  and 
other  fossil  shells,  including  Proditctus  gigctHfeu,  are  picked  up  in  the 
vicinity,  having  been  washed  down  from  the  neighbourhood  of 
(irassington. 

Having  crossed  the  bridge  we  have  on  our  right  the  substantial 
and  picturesque  old  house  of  Low  Hall,  the  old  home  of  the 
Aldersons  with  its  fine  walnut  tree  in  front,  and  ancient  fish-pond, 
once  famous  for  its  tench.  Climbing  the  pleasant  slope  we  perceive 
the  strongly-built  old  home  of  the  Middletons  before  us  on  our  left, 

*  Yorks.  Anil.  //.,  v.  374. 


252 

which  is  a  notable  feature  in  the  landscape  of  this  sunny  hill-side  for 
many,  miles  around.  The  old  Lodge,  of  which  I  give  a  view,  is  a 
picturesque  sixteenth  century  building,  having  a  Tudor  oriel  window 
in  front  and  a  very  massive  stone  entrance.  The  square  tower  at  the 
north-west  angle  appears  of  like  age,  having  similar  wall-coursing 
and  quoining,  and  flat-headed  windows  with  plain  label  mouldings. 
The  modern  chapel  built  up  to  the  tower  was  added,  and  up  to  1879, 
when  the  new  Roman  Catholic  Chapel  was  built  in  Ilkley,  served  the 
spiritual  needs  of  the  local  inhabitants,  who  were  mostly  Roman 
Catholics.  Before  the  erection  of  the  chapel  services  were  held  in 
one  of  the  rooms  of  the  Lodge. 

At  an  early  date  that  wealthy  and  numerous  body  of  crusading 
monks,  the  Knights  Templars,  obtained  possession  of  certain  lands 
at  Ilkley,  and  there  is  a  document  of  local  interest  preserved  among 
the  records  at  York  which  shews  to  what  degree  of  legal  power  the 
order  had  attained  by  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Henry  III. 
granted  them  numberless  privileges  and  exemptions,  and  at  Ilkley 
we  learn  how  they  could  and  did  enforce  them.  Peter  Middleton, 
then  of  Nessfield,  (temp.  Edward  I.)  had,  it  seems,  some  dispute  with 
the  tenants  of  the  Templars  in  Wharfedale,  and  was  compelled  under 
a  penalty  of  zos.  to  be  paid  towards  the  fabric  of  York  Minster 
(doubtless  the  present  nave,  then  being  built)  to  withold  at  any  and 
all  times,  proceedings  of  whatsoever  kind  against  the  Templars  in  any 
court,  canonical  or  civil.  That  if  he  suffered  injury  from  any  of 
their  tenants  he  must  bring  his  complaint  before  their  court  at 
Whitkirk,  in  other  words  he  was  to  be  tried  before  a  prejudiced 
tribunal.*  Well  might  this  arrogation  of  power  and  public  injustice, 
to  the  detriment  of  the  national  courts  of  law,  have  led  to  the 
Templars'  downfall,  or  at  any  rate  have  proved,  as  it  did,  one  of  the 
prime  motives  for  their  suppression. 

Myddelton  Lodge  has  been  the  home  of  the  Middletons  for 
several  centuries,  and  since  the  time  of  Richard  III.  they  have  been 
lords  of  the  increasingly-valuable  manor  of  Ilkley  (see  page  204).  The 
Ilkley  branch  from  its  foundation  has  always  been  devoutly  attached 
to  the  Roman  Catholic  religion.  The  family's  lineage  and  descent 
have  been  so  often  cited  that  it  would  be  needless  repetition  to  detail 
the  succession  of  all  the  De  Middletons  and  their  inter-marriages  with 
distinguished  northern  families,  from  the  Norman  period  to  the  present 
time.  But  whatever  bright  and  noble  acts  may  have  characterised 
any  of  the  early  members  of  this  ancient  house,  they  reappeared  with 
unfading  lustre  in  the  person  of  the  late  Mr.  Wm.  Middleton,  whose 
good  deeds  and  large-hearted  benefactions  no  present-day  writer  can 
willingly  pass  unnoticed.  "The  Good  Mr.  Middleton,"  as  he  is  still 
fondly  spoken  of  by  the  older  race  of  Ilkleyites,  was  one  of  the  most 

*  The  evidence  is  printed  in  full  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine  for  1857,  page  645. 


253 

generous  and  sympathetic  of  men  who  ever  owned  fair  acres.  No 
one  will  ever  know  the  full  extent  of  his  gifts  to  the  poor  of  Ilkley, 
nor  of  his  unending  private  charity  in  various  other  directions.  In 
fair  weather  or  foul  he  might  often  have  been  seen  going  about 
dispensing  charity  witli  his  own  hand,  and  making  not  very  close 
enquiry  into  cases  that  had  been  represented  to  him  as  needing  help. 

"Careless  their  merits  or  their  faults  to  scan 
Mis  pity  gave  ere  charity  began." 

He  also  gave  every  facility  to  sportsmen  and  anglers  on  the  estates, 
and  his  leniency  to  poachers  on  his  well-stocked  preserves  was  looked 
upon  by  some  with  much  misgiving.  But  his  fame  was  so  fair  that 
even  many  a  hardened  spirit  could  not  thoil  (as  the  Yorkshire  saying 
is)  to  take  the  good  man's  possessions  thus  dishonestly,  and  it  is  said 
he  suffered  less  from  these  stealthy  depredations  than  many  another 
who  meted  out  retribution  on  the  offenders.  During  severe  winters, 
or  when  employment  was  scarce,  his  thoughts  ever  turned  to  those 
in  need.  At  Christmas  his  bounty  was  considerable  and  must  have 
come  like  warm  sunlight  to  many  a  poor  man's  home.  His  last 
years  were  much  given  to  religious  meditation  and  to  constant  yet 
unostentatious  charity.  At  the  very  hour  of  his  death  on  December 
1 6th,  1847,  tne  I'kley  shop-folk  and  merchants  were  busy  delivering 
flour  and  meal,  meat,  coal,  blankets,  and  clothing,  to  many  ill- 
provided  families  in  the  parish,  and  these  in  double  quantities  to  what 
they  had  received  before,  by  his  express  wish.  He  died  indeed 
beloved  as  a  father  taken  from  his  children,  unambitious  of  honours 
or  office,  "  more  bent  to  raise  the  wretched  than  to  rise."  These 
words  of  Goldsmith  may  be  aptly  applied  to  him  : — 

Kven  children  followed,  with  endearing  wile, 

And  pluck'd  his  gown,  to  share  the  good  man's  smile: 

His  ready  smile  a  parent's  warmth  expressed 

Their  welfare  pleased  him,  and  their  cares  distressed: 

To  them  his  heart,  his  love,  his  griefs  were  given, 

But  all  his  serious  thoughts  had  rest  in  heaven. 

As  some  tall  cliff  that  lifts  its  awful  form, 

Swells  from  the  vale  and  midway  leaves  the  storm, 

Though  round  its  breast  the  rolling  clouds  are  spread, 

Kternal  sunshine  settles  on  its  head! 

Full  of  years  he  was  laid  to  rest  in  the  little  burial-ground 
adjoining  Middleton  Chapel.  His  eldest  son  and  successor  was  the 
late  Peter  Middleton  Esq.,  who  died  in  1866,  having  married  Juliana, 
daughter  of  Charles  Phillip,  :6th  Lord  Stourton,  a  nobleman,  who 
purchased  in  1805  the  manor  of  Allerton  Mauleverer,  Co.  York,  for 
^163,800.*  This  Mr.  Middleton  formed  the  curious  "Calvary"  in 
the  grounds  north  of  the  lodge,  which  is  entered  by  a  doorway 
bearing  these  apt  words  in  Latin  :  "-Sad  is  my  soul  unto  death.'' 
The  passage  winds  in  the  gloom  of  overhanging  trees  to  a  secluded 

.Sec  the  author's  \idd?rdale,  pages  197-200. 


grotto  which  was  formerly  titled  up  as  an  oratory.  The  stations  of 
the  Cross  border  the  narrow  way,  and  there  is  a  large  figure  of  the 
Blessed  Virgin  placed  beneath  a  canopy,  on  which  appears  a  verse 
of  the  well-known  Latin  hymn,  Stabat  Mater  dolorosa*  Some  of  the 
relics  found  at  Ilkley  have  been  brought  here,  including  several 
fragments  of  early  crosses  &c.  Since  1896  the  Lodge  has  been  let 
to  tenants,  the  present  occupant  being  W.  H.  Longbottom  Esq. 

The  late  Mr.  Midclleton  dearly  loved  the  old  ancestral  home  and 
everything  about  it.  He  would  have  no  interference  with  the  beauty 
of  the  estate,  which  in  his  day  was  richly  wooded  almost  all  the  way 
from  Denton  to  Middleton.  And  there  was  some  fine  timber  too, 
such  as  one  could  only  find  on  the  richest  river-side  pasture-land.  He 
used  sometimes  to  say:  "Ah,  me!  the  axe  will  go  ding  dong,  ding 
dong,  when  I  am  gone."  While  he  lived  it  is  said  only  one  tree  was 
cut  down,  and  this  was  out  of  pure  kindness  of  heart  to  oblige  a  man 
named  Dobson,  who  was  very  anxious  to  have  a  stump  grown  on  the 
estate  out  of  which  to  make  a  new  wooden  leg,  as  the  one  he  had 
carried  for  many  years  had  worn  two  inches  below  its  original  length. 
The  old  squire  at  last  promised  to  remove  a  small  tree,  but  it  was 
with  a  sorrowful  heart.  He  would  much  sooner  have  parted  with  ^50. 
When  he  died  nearly  all  the  grand  old  trees  on  the  banks  of  the  river, 
especially  from  Bow  Beck  to  the  circling  deep  pool  called  the  Crum 
Wheel,  was,  as  he  had  anticipated  barked  and  felled.  Now  within 
the  last  two  years  a  large  portion  of  this  part  of  the  estate,  comprising 
about  450  acres,  has  been  sold  to  a  company  for  ,£55,000,  together 
with  all  fishing  rights,  &c.,  and  the  great  arm  of  modern  Ilkley  is  to 
stretch  to  this  side  of  the  water.  The  land  is  to  be  laid  out  in  broad 
avenues,  with  villas  and  houses  of  not  less  than  a  certain  value.  But 
are  we  to  murmur  at  this  encroachment  upon  a  lovely  bit  of  Old 
Wharfedale  ?  Tempus  et  homines  edax  rent  in  \ 


*  One  would  like  to  know  if  the  Robert  Middleton,  "a  native  of  Yorkshire,"  who 
Was  hanged  at  Lancaster  in  i6ot  tor  refusing  to  give  up  the  faith  of  his  fathers,  was  ot 
this  family?  Another  Roman  Catholic  Yorkshireman  of  the  name,  Anthony  Middleton, 
was  so  resolved  in  his  faith  that  he  was  ordered  to  be  hanged  and  embowelled  and  cut 
down  while  alive,  at  Durham,  in  May  1590. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 


AROUND    BKA.MSLKY    BKACON. 

I  lowlier  Hill,  it--  meaning     Supposed  tumuli     Beacon  lig-hted  during-  the  threat  of  the 
French   invasion  --  Fine  prospect      Lang-bar      An  ancient  paved  way      Barnbowers 
Currer  Hall      Karrand  House    -\Ve.-i    Hall  and   the    Kcrrands  —  Beacon  House — The 
Briggs  family  — The  late   Mr.  B.  B.  Popplcwcll     Church   services  at    Beacon   Hill  — 
Local  Weslevans      Ling  Park  and  the  Kendalls. 

HE  majestic  Hill  of  Hovvber,  or  Beamsley  Beacon,  as  it 
is  now  commonly  called,  presents  about  its  wide  and 
airy  expanses  many  features  of  interest.  Myddelton 
Lodge,  described  in  the  last  chapter,  stands  at  no  great 
distance  from  it,  and  was  no  doubt  originally  a  hunting- 
seat  for  the  old  lords  who  delighted  to  sport  about  these  forested  and 
heathery  uplands.  The  Roman  road  from  Ilkley  to  Aldborough 
crosses  its  eastern  Hanks,  and  at  one  time  Roman  tiles  and  other 
evidences  of  the  constant  passage  were  not  infrequently  picked  up, 
while  in  the  name  of  the  Hill  there  is  just  a  suspicion  of  its  having 
been  the  scene  of  a  great  contest  between  Roman  and  Celt,  or  perhaps 
of  the  Romanised  Celts  and  the  later  Teutonic  conquerors.  Howber 
literally  is  the  Hill  of  Tombs,  from  the  Teut.  haugr,  Ang.  how,  a  burial 
mound,  and  berg  als.  her,  a  hill,  often  fortified.  I  have  noticed, 
however,  but  one  hoiv  on  all  this  wide  moor,  and  this  lies  about  400 
yards  north  of  the  plantation  behind  Ling  Park.  It  is  thickly  covered 
with  ling,  and  measures  eighty  yards  in  circumference,  and  has  a 
hollow  centre  as  if  it  had  been  disturbed.  As  it  lies  on  an  undoubted 
Celtic  boundary  which  runs  northwards  to  Black  Fell,  and  still  marks 
the  division  of  the  ancient  parishes  of  Skipton  and  Ilkley,  it  may 
possibly  not  cover  an  interment,  but  have  been  thrown  up,  as  we 
know  these  mounds  sometimes  were  made,  to  indicate  a  boundary  or 
way-mark,  like  the  "lad-stones"  of  the  Saxons  I  have  mentioned  on 
Rumbalds  Moor.  Be  this  as  it  may,  no  apparent  traces  of  other 
mounds  exist  on  Howber,  though  I  have  heard  it  said  there  are  some 
nearer  the  summit.  But  in  the  absence  of  fuller  evidence,  may  I 
suggest  the  A-S.  hawe,  v.  hhiwan,  to  view,  to  prospect;  though  Lye 
in  his  Diet.  Sax.  et  Goth.  Lat.  (1772)  gives  hon  as  a  mountain,  and 
beorh,  a  citadel  or  fortress?  In  old  local  writings  it  is  variously 
spelled  Houber,  Howbar,  Hoober,  and  even  Rubber.  Whether  it 
has  ever  been  actually  fortified,  or  has  formed  a  summer  camp,  like 
the  top  of  Ingleborough,  there  is  now  nothing  to  shew,  but  of  its 


256 

long  use  as  a  prospecting-point  and  beacon  there  is  no  doubt.  In 
the  Bolton  Abbey  registers,  under  date  1803,  is  this  entry: 

Apprehensive  of  a  French  invasion,  Beamsley  Beacon  was  put  in  a  state  of  repair, 
and  four  people  appointed  to  watch  it.  About  —  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  chapelry 
in  rolled  themselves  as  Volunteers,  the  whole  number  of  whom  in  Craven  amounted  to 
1,200  Infantry  and  200  Cavalry.  A  Sergeant  was  appointed  to  drill  the  volunteers  <>t 
this  chapelry  at  Bolton. 

The  beacon  at  this  time  received  light  from  Pinhavv  on  Carlton  Moor 
and  sent  it  forward  to  Otley  Chevin,  as  appears  by  an  old  chart  at 
VVakefield,  dated  1803. 

The  summit  of  the  Beacon  (1,300  feet)  which  is  capped  with  the 
Kinderscout  or  Peak  of  Derbyshire  grit,  commands  one  of  the  widest 
views  in  West  Yorkshire,  and  as  a  well-defined  path  can  be  followed 
all  the  way  up,  the  trip  is  well  worth  making.  On  Jubilee  night  in 
June  1897,  a  fire  was  lighted  on  a  point  of  the  beacon,  (800  feet 
elevation)  from  which  more  than  a  score  fires  could  be  seen,  including 
Pendle  Hill,  Cracoe  Fell,  Rawdon  Billing,  Otley  Chevin,  Rylstone 
Fell,  Whernside,  &c. 

The  scattered  hamlet  of  Langbar  or  Langber  lies  down  below  on 
its  southern  slope,  and  like  Howber  appears  to  retain  in  its  name  a 
distinctive  kind  of  her*  Some  names,  however,  around  the  Beacon 
proclaim  the  presence  of  the  old  Gaelic  Celt,  such  as  Black  Hill,  Black 
Foss,  already  explained,  while  the  name  Oliver  close  to  the  same 
ancient  Celtic  boundary,  is  perhaps  of  similar  antiquity.  There  is 
on  the  line  of  the  Scots  Dyke,  near  Richmond,  in  the  North  Riding,  a 
spot  known  as  Oliver  Ducket  and  Oliver  Gill,  which  I  have  suggested 
may  be  a  corruption  of  the  Celt,  oirirgael,  the  dike  or  boundary  of  the 
Gael.f  There  is  evidently  a  very  ancient  right  of  way  across  Langbar 
Moor,  which  has  been  paved  with  single-file  stones  probably  within 
the  last  two  centuries,  when  there  was  a  general  reparation  of  country 
causeways.  I  have  traversed  this  road  from  the  direction  of  Middleton 
northwards  under  the  Beacon  towards  Storiths,  where  it  joined  the 
road,  mentioned  later,  from  Bolton  Bridge  over  Hazlewood  Moor,  and 
was  used  in  the  days  of  the  monasteries.  An  invigorating  and 
appetizing  walk  it  is  too,  when  the  sun  lights  up  the  hill,  with  the 
heather  in  bloom  and  wild  birds  are  winging  between  you  and  the  sky! 

In  and  around  Langbar  are  a  few  interesting  old  houses,  notably 
Currer  Hall,  Farrand  House,  and  formerly  an  ancient  and  picturesque 

*  Langbar  is  three  and  a  half  miles  north-west  of  llkley  and  there  is  a  Langbar  on 
the  moor  a  few  miles  north  of  Bewcastle,  in  Cumberland,  which  has  some  early  Anglian 
crosses  of  similar  age  and  beauty  to  the  llkley  crosses,  and  like  llkley  its  church  stands 
within  the  ruins  of  a  Roman  camp.  Opposite  our  Wharfedale  Langbar  is  Acldingham, 
and  singularly,  too,  south  of  Bewcastle  and  Carlisle  is  the  ancient  parish  of  Addingham. 
One  might  conclude  that  the  Anglian  settlers,  together  with  the  energetic  art  of  St. 
Wilfrith's  time,  had  followed  the  Roman  road  from  llkley  to  Aldboro'  and  thence  to 
Catterick,  Kirkby  Stephen,  Addingham  and  Bewcastle. 

f  See  the  author's  Richmondshire,  p.  193. 


257 

homestead  called  I5:irnbowers,  which  was  unfortunately  pulled  down 
some  thirls  years  ago.  In  the  early  part  of  the  century  it  was  the 
residence  of  Major  ISriggs,  whose  daughter,  Mary,  married  Wm. 
Pullan,  who  died  at  I-'arrand  House  in  1X52.  aged  seventy-five,  and  is 
buried  at  Bolton  Abliey.  I  have  M-en  an  old  indenture,  dated  1648, 
wherein  it  appears  the  house  was  then  occupied  by  a  family  named 
l.owcocke,  and  one  Laurence  Lowcocke,  of  Barnbovvers,  purchased 
of  Francis  and  Thomas  Hodgson,  of  Hovvber  Hill,  a  cottage,  garden 
and  close,  occupied  by  Richard  LJmpleby,  of  the  yearly  rent  of  8s., 
and  a  parcel  of  meadow  ground  "lately  taken  of  a  certain  close  called 
Black  Howber  Hill,"  which  adjoined  the  said  cottage  and  close.  A 
rustic  old  home  this  must  have  been  where  the  good  man  and  his 
wife  found  decent  shelter,  a  garden  to  grow  vegetables,  and  a  field 
perhaps  for  a  cow,  and  all  for  the  magnificent  annual  disbursement 
of  eiiiht  shillings. 


CURRER    HALL. 

Currer  Hall,  the  property  of  John  Cunliffe  Kaye,  Esq.,  is  a  very 
pleasantly  situated,  substantial  building,  apparently  erected  in  the 
early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  is  now  in  the  occupation  of 
Mrs.  Douglas.  The  entrance-hall  is  of  handsome  black  oak  having 
carved  panels.  The  Currers,  as  I  have  before  pointed  out  (see  page 
246)  were  an  old  Wharfedale  family*  and  in  the  seventeenth  century 
were  living  at  Langbar.  In  the  Skipton  church  registers  I  find  there 
was  a  Thomas  Currer,  of  Langbar,  who  married  Ann  Raykes,  of 

:  It  is  essentially  a  Craven  name,  and  I  have  sometimes  thought  it  may  have 
originated  when  Cymric-Celtic  bird  names  were  in  common  use  in  Craven,  as  part  of 
the  ancient  kingdom  of  Strathclyde,  which  kingdom  came  to  an  end  about  A. I).  1018. 
They  -urvived  in  Cumbria  till  last  (eighteenth)  century.  The  Celtic  word  for  a  heron 
is  nirra.  Sec  also  Specht  (Speight)  in  chapter  of  Foundation  of  Bolton  Priory. 


Addingham,  in  Nov.  1667,  and  in  the  April  following,  Henry  Currer, 
of  Ilkley,  married  a  namesake,  Dorothy  Currer,  of  Langbar.  A  Wm. 
Currer  is  witness  to  the  sale  of  Farrand  House,  close  by,  in  1695;  and 
in  1716  Wm.  Currer  is  witness  to  the  will  of  a  Kendall  of  Nessfield. 
Doubtless  the  present  house  occupies  the  site  of  an  older  dwelling,  I 
am  informed  there  was  a  small,  low  antique  building  which  stood 
within  the  area  of  the  present  kitchen-garden.  It  was  always  known 
as  the  Chapel,  and  was  pulled  down  nearly  fifty  years  ago. 

Farrand  or  Ferrand  House,  just  mentioned,  was  also  pulled 
down  and  rebuilt  about  1875.  ^  was  an  early  Jacobean  building, 
having  long  mullion  windows  with  leaded  panes.  I  have  seen  the 
deeds  of  this  property  for  the  past  two  centuries  and  no  Ferrands 
appear  to  have  owned  or  lived  there  within  this  period.  But  in  an 
indenture  made  in  1687  when  the  property  was  sold  by  John  Fawcett, 
of  Haverah  Park,  gent,  to  Francis  Bradley,  of  Stainburn,  in  the 
parish  of  Kirkby  Overblow,  yeoman,  there  is  a  reference  to  a  piece 
of  newly  enclosed  land,  formerly  part  of  the  Upper  Wood,  which  was 
had  in  exchange  from  one  Peter  Currer  by  Thomas  Ferrand,  deceased. 
The  dwelling  is  there  called  Hog  Close  House  and  is  always 
described  by  this  name  in  deeds  of  transfer  and  sale  down  to  1740. 
There  was  about  eight-and-a-half  acres  of  land  attached  to  it.  The 
property  was  eventually  bought  by  Major  Briggs  and  on  his  death,  a 
century  ago,  was  inherited  by  his  daughter  Mary,  wife  of  Wm.  Pullan, 
whose  grandson,  Mr.  Walter  Pullan,  of  Langbar,  is  the  present  owner. 

The  Ferrands  were  a  family  of  some  consequence  in  these  parts, 
and  in  the  days  of  Queen  Elizabeth  resided  at  the  good  old  mansion 
of  West  Hall  in  the  valley  below  Langbar.  William  Ferrand,  who 
built  Carlton  Hall,  near  Skipton,  in  1584,  whose  descendants  are  now 
represented  by  the  large  land-owning  family  at  St.  Ives,  Bingley,  had 
two  sons,  Thomas,  the  elder,  of  Carlton,  and  William,  the  younger, 
of  West  Hall.  But  in  the  Skipton  registers  are  entries  of  the  baptism 
and  burial  on  the  same  day,  March  3ist,  1600,  of  Thomas,  son  of 
Wm.  Farrand,  of  Carlton,  the  younger ;  and  again  on  April  i5th,  1601, 
there  is  entered  the  baptism  of  Mary,  daughter  of  Wm.  Farrand,  of 
Carlton,  the  younger.  William,  senior,  died  at  Carlton  in  1601,  when 
it  would  appear  Thomas  succeeded  him  at  Carlton  and  William  took 
up  his  residence  at  West  Hall  by  the  Wharfe.  The  Ilkley  registers 
contain  several  entries  of  baptism  of  children  of  Wm.  Ferrand,  of 
West  Hall,  and  of  his  two  wives,  Anne  and  Brigita,  who  were  buried 
from  West  Hall  at  Ilkley,  the  former  in  1621  and  the  latter  in  1624. 
I  find  also  that  an  Ellenora  Ferrand  was  married  at  Ilkley  to  Thomas 
Maude  of  Bingley  parish,  Aug.  3oth,  1614.*  In  a  compotus  for 

*  This  Thomas  Maude  is  not  in  the  Visitations,  but  there  is  no  doubt  he  was  the 
son  of  Arthur  Maude  of  Riddlesden,  and  is  mentioned  in  the  will,  dated  8  Feb.  1602,  of 
Thomas  Maude,  of  Hollinghall.  The  above  Thomas  Maude  married  secondly  Elizabeth, 
daughter  of  Richard  Brighouse,  of  Bradford. 


259 

1610,  which  I  h;i\c  seen  at  Bolton  Abbey,  William  Ferrand,  gent., 
appears  as  officer  and  collector  of  rents  for  the  Clifford*'  estates  at 
N'esslield  and  Langbar,  no  doubt  the  Ferrand  of  \\'est  Hall.  Thomas 
Ferrand  succeeded  his  father  at  West  Hall,  and  a  son  of  his  was 
buried  at  Ilkley,  A 1114-.  ist,  1639.  He  is  no  douht  the  one  mentioned 
on  the  last  page  as  owning  land  at  Langbar,  and  in  all  probability 
the  builder  of  I-'errand  House.  He  died  in  1076.  In  the  Ilkley 
registers  I  find  a  John  Ferrand,  gent.,  of  West  Hall,  buried  April  jth, 
1673.  How  long  the  family  continued  to  reside  here  is  not  certain, 
but  a  century  ago  it  was  in  the  occupation  of  a  worsted  spinner 
named  Midgley.  The  old  hall  with  its  timber  window-sills,  has  long 
been  a  farmhouse  and  has  a  good  acreage  of  land  attached.*  Not 
very  far  from  it  is  the  charming  dell,  with  waterfall,  called  Black 
Foss,  and  the  upland  country  round  about  is  thoroughly  rural  and 
retired,  and  rises  with  ever-expanding  views  to  the  Beacon. 

The  conspicuous  Beacon  House  is  quite  a  modern  mansion, 
built  in  1848  by  the  late  Mr.  Bern'.  Briggs  Popplewell  on  a  site  known 
as  Brass  Castle,  suggestive  of  some  guard-house  to  the  Roman  road.f 
His  family  on  both  sides  has  resided  in  the  neighbourhood  for  fully 
two  centuries.  (See  pedigree  on  page  260).  A  long  elevated  tract  of 
land  on  the  south  side  of  the  Beacon  is  marked  on  the  Ordnance  Map, 
Popplewell  Ridge,  no  doubt  after  some  former  owner  of  this  side  of 
the  moor.  The  late  Major  Briggs  belonged  a  good  deal  of  land  in 
this  locality,  which  at  the  time  of  his  death  was  divided  between  his 
only  son,  by  his  first  wife,  and  three  daughters,  by  his  second  wife. 
The  eldest  daughter  Ellen  Briggs,  married  Matthew  Pullan,  whose 
brother  William  Pullan  of  Langbar,  married  another  daughter,  Mary, 
the  third,  Susannah,  being  the  wife  of  Benj.  Popplewell,  of  Guiseley, 
malster,  father  of  the  late  Mr.  Benj.  Briggs  Popplewell,  above 
mentioned.  Mr.  Popplewell  took  great  interest  in  all  works  of  a 
philanthropic  and  charitable  nature,  and  was  one  of  the  original 
promoters  and  largest  contributors  towards  the  erection  of  the  Ilkiev 
Hospital.  He  married  Hannah,  daughter  of  the  late  Mr.  John  Sharp, 
of  Bingley,  who  died  at  the  Beacon  House  early  in  1898  in  her  goth 
year.  Shortly  before  her  death  she  generously  gave  the  sum  of  £200 
to  the  Bradford  Children's  Hospital  for  the  endowment  of  a 
"Popplewell  Cot"  in  that  institution. 

Mr.  Popplewell  was  an  enthusiastic  pedestrian  and  few  men 
engaged  in  business  life  performed  such  remarkable  feats  of  walking 
as  he  did.  He  had  a  more  than  ordinary  belief  in  the  efficacy  of 
long  country  walks  as  a  restorative  and  builder  of  the  constitution. 
Before  the  railway  to  Ilkley  was  opened  in  1865  he  was  accustomed 

Set   riianptiin  Corrt-xp.  (Camden  Soc.)  p.  rxxvi. 

I    Then-    is   ;ilso   another    "  Brass   (.'astir'     on    tin-    moor   above    thr    Lower    Harden 
reservoir! 


260 


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26l 

to  walk  daily  from  his  house  on  the  Beacon  to  Steeton  station,  and 
hack  again  in  the  evening,  climbing  the  long  road  through  Silsden  to 
Addingham  and  thence  up  the  brow  two  miles  to  the  Beacon,  a 
distance  out  and  home  of  fourteen  miles,  and  this  was  done  continually 
for  many  years,  fair  weather  or  foul !  So  punctual  was  he  in  this 
daily  performance  that  I  am  told  many  people  in  Silsden  set  their 


BENJAMIN    BRIGGS    POPPLEWELL,    ESQ. 

clocks  by  him.  When  the  days  were  excessively  hot  he  usually 
walked  with  his  coat  thrown  over  his  arm,  clad  in  the  whitest  of 
shirt-sleeves,  the  envy  of  many  a  Silsden  housewife  as  he  passed  up 
and  down  the  long  main  street.  Sometimes  when  the  skies  of  winter 
looked  threatening  or  snow  lay  deep  upon  the  ground,  his  good  wife 


262 

would  send  the  carriage  and  horses  to  meet  him  at  Steeton  station. 
But  to  no  purpose.  The  carriage  was  invariably  sent  back  empty, 
and  he  would  push  along  all  the  way  home,  often  through  a  blinding 
storm  of  sleet  or  snow,  and  many  a  difficult  task  he  encountered  when 
the  old  lane  leading  up  to  the  Beacon  was  choked  with  the  drifts. 

The  house  which  he  built  on  the  Beacon  is,  notwithstanding  its 
elevated  situation  a  charming  place,  being  well  protected  in  the  rear 
with  large  thriving  plantations  backed  by  still  ascending  moorlands. 
From  the  front  of  the  house  there  is  a  marvellously  grand  view.  The 
pleasant  grounds  and  gardens  around  the  mansion  are  of  great  extent 
and  are  most  ingeniously  laid  out.  Paths  are  formed  on  the  slope  or 
along  levelled  terraces,  turning  and  dropping  most  unexpectedly,  with 
curious  grottoes  and  alcoves  formed  out  of  the  natural  rock,  while 
here  and  there  are  revealed  beautiful  prospects  over  the  far-extending 
valley.  In  summer  time  the  open  parterres  and  rockeries  contain  a 
surprising  amount  of  bloom. 

Of  not  less  interest  is  the  admirably  fitted-up  interior  of  the 
house.  Especially  noteworthy  is  the  superb  Elizabethan  black  oak 
furniture,  which  has  been  a  family  possession  ever  since  it  was  made. 
It  bears  the  initial  'P'  and  the  unusually  early  date  '  1569.'  A  fine 
old  grandfather's  clock  has  been  made  out  of  a  piece  of  the  family 
furniture,  having  original  Elizabethan  carved  panels,  while  the  clock 
itself  is  one  of  the  celebrated  Wensleydale  make,  being  inscribed 
"  James  Ogden."*  There  is  also  an  almost  unique  collection  of  old 
pewter  plates  and  dishes,  and  an  original  delf-rack.  Some  of  the 
pewter  bears  the  family  initials  of  Briggs  and  Popplewell.  An  old  oak 
box  from  Windsover  has  carved  upon  it,  R.W.A.G.  1688,  having 
belonged  originally  most  probably  to  a  Gill. 

For  about  thirty  years  one  of  the  rooms  of  the  house  was  fitted 
up  for  Sunday  services  in  connection  with  the  Parish  Church  at 
Ilkley.  The  services  were  held  every  other  Sunday  in  summer,  and 
in  winter  on  the  two  Sundays  nearest  the  full  moon,  and  they  always 
received  the  generous  assistance  and  support  of  Mrs.  Popplewell  and 
of  her  son  and  daughter-in-law,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  B.  Popplewell,  the 
present  owners.  The  curate  usually  came  up  from  Ilkley,  a  duty  that 
in  latter  years  fell  upon  the  Rev.  W.  H.  S.  Hartley,  now  vicar  of 
Morton.  During  the  three  years  that  Mr.  Hartley  took  these 
services,  he  was  only  once  prevented  by  deep  snow  from  fulfilling  the 
fortnightly  mission,  though  many  a  rough  experience  he  and  his  past 
coadjutors  must  have  had  in  journeying  to  and  from  Ilkley  by  the 
wild  moor  road  under  the  Beacon.  When  the  church  was  built  at 
Nessfield  in  1892  the  services  at  Beacon  Hill  were  discontinued. 

The  Wesleyans  have  also  had  a  place  of  worship  at  Langbar 
now  many  years,  and  it  would  be  hard  to  find  a  place  so  lonely  and 

*See  the  author's  Richmondshlre,  pag-e  455. 


263 

exposed  as  that  on  the  moor  edge  where  the  old  chapel  stands.  A 
neat  new  building  of  corrugated  iron,  lined  with  wood,  has  lately 
been  erected  on  a  better  site,  and  was  formally  opened  on  July  icth, 
1899,  by  the  Rev.  Silvester  Whitehead,  when  nearly  200  persons  sat 
down  to  tea  provided  in  a  marquee  adjoining  the  chapel.  It  was  a 
red-letter  day  in  the  annals  of  local  Wesleyanism,  and  the  occasion 
will  long  be  remembered. 

I  might  go  on  page  after  page  describing  every  other  house, 
together  with  the  old  yeoman  families  who  have  been  born  and 
reared  on  this  grand  old  moorland  brow,  but  space  forbids.  Black 
Hill  farm,  Wards  End,  and  Dene  Head,  the  old  home  of  the  Priors, 
where  John  Prior,  the  clock-maker  (whose  family  were  in  the  same 


OLD   WESLEYAN    CHAPEL,    LANGBAR. 

trade  at  Skipton),  made  his  wonderful  astronomical  clock,  and  Ling 
Park,  a  home  of  the  Kendalls  for  generations,  have  each  and  all  a 
history  to  relate.  The  pedigree  on  next  page  shews  the  descent  of 
the  Kendalls  of  Ling  Park  for  about  a  century.  They  are  one  of  the 
most  numerous  old  yeoman  families  in  Wharfedale,  long  resident  in 
the  parishes  of  Leathley,  Askwith,  Ilkley  and  Bolton  Abbey.  As 
long  ago  as  1278  a  William  de  Derley  and  Roger  de  Kendale  appear 
in  a  plea  of  rent  in  place  of  William  de  Wyndsore,  against  the  Abbot 
of  York.*  The  last  of  the  family  who  lived  at  Ling  Park  was  old 
Andrew  Kendall  who  died  about  ten  years  ago,  leaving  some 
daughters  who  soon  afterwards  gave  up  the  farm. 

*  Assize  Roll  7th  Kdw.  I. 


264 


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CHAPTER     XVIII. 


NESSFIELD. 

Meaning  <>f  Nesslk'ld  — C'astlrl><-ri,r,  a  prehistoric  camp — Local  discoveries — Low  Mill 
Scar — Norman  land-cultivation — Plumpton  family — Manor-house  and  mill — Old 
homesteads — John  Prior,  clock-maker — The  Kendalls  and  Nessfields — The  new 
church — The  swing-bridge. 


ESSFIELD-with-Langbar  forms  one  township  in  the  old 
parish  of  Ilkley.  The  first-named  village  may  be 
reached  from  Ilkley  by  a  pleasant  walk  of  two  miles, 
keeping  the  river  on  the  left  beside  the  green  expanse 
of  the  golf-links.*  Round  about  it  are  flowery  lanes 
and  lush  pastures,  where  cows  are  kept  browsing  well  into  the  winter, 
and  provide  much  of  the  sweet  milk  that  is  consumed  by  the 
increasingly  populous  town  of  Ilkley.  Pleasant  woodlands  and  gill- 
becks  resonant  with  the  music  of  leaping  rills,  cover  and  indent  the 
sunny  slopes  of  the  wide  uplands  that  sweep  northwards  to  the 
historic  Beacon.  Cosily  nestles  the  little  hamlet  beneath  embowering 
trees  and  sheltering  crags,  and  I  have  seen  the  name,  probably  for 
this  reason,  sometimes  written  Nestfield.  But  there  can  be  little 
doubt  it  is  derived  from  the  A.-S.  nces-hleoth,  or  ti(?s-feld,  the  cape-like 
ascent  and  cliff  overhanging  the  Wharf,  whose  verdant  slope  is 
doubtless  the  oldest  bit  of  cultivated  land  in  the  township. 

Locally  it  is  known  as  Castleberg,  and  I  am  disposed  to  think 
it  was  a  winter-station  of  the  old  Britons  of  Howber,  and  afterwards 
of  the  Teutonic  settlers.  An  urn  containing  ashes  has  been  found  on 
the  site,  and  Mr.  James  Pickard,  who  has  long  occupied  the  adjoining 
farm,  tells  me  he  has  excavated  several  parts  of  it  and  found  human 
bones,  but  no  relics.  This  premises  Anglo-Saxon  interments  and  the 
urn  late  British,  but  the  few  discoveries  hitherto  made  are  insufficient  for 
historic  proof  of  any  particular  people.  No  interments  are  known  to 
have  been  made  on  the  site  since  Norman  times.  Whitaker  writing 
in  1805,  holds  the  enclosure  to  be  Roman  and  says  that  a  massive 
key  of  copper,  nearly  two  feet  in  length,  which  was  found  here  has 
probably  been  the  key  of  the  castle-gates.  One  would  like  to  know 
what  purpose  a  Roman  camp  at  this  point  would  serve?  Formed  on 
a  natural  hill  and  following  the  configuration  of  the  lofty  and  abrupt 

*  A  member  of  the  Ilkley  Golf  Club,  Miss  K.  Gascoigne  Moeller,  is  proved  by  her 
numerous  successes  to  be  one  of  the  best  lady  players  in  the  kingdom.  In  the  Spring 
of  1000  she  won  both  the  long  and  short  course  competition  at  St.  Annes  against  all 
comers,  which  included  several  well-known  champions. 


266 

scar  which  constitutes  an  impregnable  front  on  the  Wharfe  side,  the 
camp  is  rudely  rectangular,  and  has  been  protected  by  a  double 
stockade  and  intervening  trench  on  its  eastern  or  most  accessible  side. 
At  the  south-east  angle  is  a  circular  depression,  about  thirty  yards  in 
circumference,  with  a  low  mound  in  the  middle  which  looks  like  a 
burial  circle,  probably  where  the  urn  was  found.  At  the  northern 
extremity  is  an  observatory  or  watch-mound,  which  the  denuding 
effects  of  rain  and  the  weather  are  gradually  altering.  At  the  south 
end  is  a  depression  about  six  yards  square,  and  on  the  east  side 
behind  the  uppermost  (stockaded)  rampart  are  several  horse-shoe 
shaped  hollows,  with  their  back  parts  formed  out  of  the  sloping 
earthen  bank,  after  the  usual  design  of  Celtic  housesteads.  Their 
backs  are  against  the  north-west,  from  which  quarter  the  storms  down 
the  valley  usually  blow,  while  they  are  open  to  the  east,  or  that  side 
requiring  most  vigilance  and  protection. 

This  ancient  elevated  encampment  is  opposite  the  Low  Mill, 
Addingham,  and  is  generally  spoken  of  by  Addingham  folk  as  Low- 
Mill  Scar.  Its  precipitous  face  is  thickly  wooded,  and  I  am  told  that 
formerly  this  natural  thicket  was  a  well-known  haunt  of  adders  and 
hag-worms,  which  might  often  be  found  as  much  as  a  yard  in  length. 
Bats,  butterflies,  and  glow-worms  were  likewise  to  be  seen  in  great 
numbers,  making  the  place  a  favorite  resort  of  old-time  natives,  who 
found  questionable  diversion  in  capturing  and  killing  or  carrying  off 
as  many  as  they  could. 

At  the  Conquest  Nacefeld,  as  it  appears  in  Domesday,  was  a 
manor  comprising  three  carucates  of  land  for  geld  where  two  ploughs 
may  be.  It  was  held  by  our  old  Teutonic  friend,  Gamelbar,  who  had 
to  give  it  up  to  William  de  Percy,  who  in  the  final  adjustment  of  A.D. 
1086,  is  stated  to  hold  two  carucates  in  Nacefeld.  The  probability 
is  there  were  three  carucates,  like  the  Percy  lands  at  Askwith  and 
Ilkley,  worked  in  the  same  amomalous  manner  each  by  two  ploughs. 
I  have  already  explained  that  where  the  three-field  system  of  cultivation 
prevailed,  the  most  common  method  in  Wharfedale,  the  carucate  of 
Domesday  consisted  of  180  acres,  of  which  120  acres  annually  paid 
tax  and  the  third  part  lay  fallow  and  paid  no  tax.  So  that  in  a 
manor  of  three  carucates  worked  on  the  three-field  system  there  were 
540  acres  under  cultivation. 

The  above  dispossession  did  not  bring  with  it,  as  one  might 
suppose,  complete  annihilation  of  local  interest.  There  was  living  at 
Nessfield  before  the  Normans  came,  one  Orm,  brother  to  the  Eldred 
of  Domesday,  and  Peter,  son  of  this  Eldred,  assumed  the  name  of 
Plumpton,  on  his  coming  into  possession,  as  mesne  lord  of  Gamelbar's 
manor  of  Plumpton  near  Knaresboro'.  Sir  Peter  most  likely  also 
succeeded  to  his  uncle  Orm's  estate  at  Nessfield  at  the  same  time, 
inasmuch  as  this  family,  though  deprived  of  the  first  interest  in  the 
soil,  remained  virtually  lords  of  the  manor  of  Nessfield  for  centuries. 


267 

The  Plumptons  were  also  landlords  in  other  parts  of  Wharfedale. 
notably  at  Grassington.  They  erected  a  manor  house  at  NY ss field 
and  held  their  courts  here,  and  their  tenants  were  obliged  to-  grind 
their  corn  at  the  lord's  mill.  In  1280  Robert  de  Plumpton  obtained 
by  royal  grant  the  right  of  free  warren  within  his  lands  at  Xessfleld. 
Ik'  also  obtained  license  to  establish  a  chapel  here  on  condition  that 
In-  gave  a  pound  of  frank  incense  annually  to  Ilkley  Church. 

Richard  Plumpton,  son  of  the  unfortunate  Sir  Wm.  Plumpton,  who 
is  buried  at  Spofforth,  may  have  resided  at  Nessfield.  He  made  a  will 
dated  1443,  and  left  no  issue.*  His  grand-nephew,  William  Plumpton, 
married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Thomas,  Lord  Clifford,  but  he  fell  on 
Towton  field,  fighting  for  the  Red  Rose  and  left  no  male  issue.!  His 
daughter  Margaret  wife  of  Sir  John  Roucliffe,  of  Cowthorpe, 
succeeded  to  the  estate  and  thence  through  the  Cliffords  the  manor 
of  Nessfield  now  belongs  to  the  Duke  of  Devonshire.  But  a  fine 
entered  in  1587  shews  that  the  manors  of  Nessfield,  Westhall,  and 
Langbar  had  passed  to  John  Morley  Esq.,  from  the  buccaneering 
George,  Earl  of  Cumberland,  who  also  about  the  same  time  mortgaged 
all  his  tenements  at  Grassington.  This  was  just  previous  to  the  Earl's 
sailing  against  the  Spanish  Armada,  in  the  defeat  of  which  he  took 
a  conspicuous  part.  In  1593  he  appears  as  plaintiff  against  Edward 
Talbot  Esq.,  for  the  recovery  of  the  said  manors  and  twenty  messuages 
ten  cottages,  with  lands  and  a  rent  of  one  pair  of  gloves  in  the  same 
and  in  Ilklev,  Addingham,  and  Beamlsey.  I  have  seen  a  compotus 
of  Francis,  Earl  of  Cumberland,  dated  1610,  wherein  it  appears  the 
the  rents  and  farms  of  the  tenants  at  Nessfield  and  Langbar  yielded 
half-yearly  £10  175.  2C\.  Long  and  favorable  leases  had  been  lately 
granted  to  some  of  the  tenants,  who  were  thus  raised  to  the  status  of 
yeoman  proprietors.  Their  forbears  in  pre-Reformation  days  had 
been  little  better  than  serfs  to  the  monasteries,  but  who  now  throve 
mightily  on  what  the  old  monks  had  lost,  and  who  also  began  to 
erect  substantial  homesteads  for  themselves  and  their  families. 

The  descriptive  writer  who  calls  every  striking  i7th  century 
farmstead  in  our  dales, — no  matter  how  late  in  the  century  the  style 
may  be — "  a  fine  old  Elizabethan  mansion,"  cannot  surely  have 
reflected  on  the  history  of  the  times.  All  these  yeomen-built  houses 
of  the  better-class  in  our  dales  are  the  product  of  the  more  general 
agricultural  benefits  of  the  i7th  century,  and  such  Elizabethan 
buildings  as  remain,  to  except  the  houses  of  the  gentry  and  public 
schools,  must  be  mere  cottages,  perhaps  re-roofed  or  enlarged.  At 
Nessfield  there  is  a  picturesque  i7th  century  farmhouse  of  this 
description,  which  is  additionally  interesting  from  the-  fact  that  it 
holds  the  first  clock  that  John  Prior,  the  celebrated  mechanician,  ever 
made.  I  have  already  mentioned  this  eminent  local  clock-maker. 

*  See  Plumpton  Correspondence  page  xxxiii.          t  Ibid  p.  xcii. 


z68 

He  received  considerable  rewards  from  Government  besides  valuable 
medals  from  the  Royal  Society,  for  his  great  improvements  in  this 
industry.  The  clock  at  Nessfield  is  not  unlike  the  famous  and 
important  one  in  the  Greenwich  Observatory,  by  which  the  nation 
regulates  its  time. 

Among  the  older  yeoman  families  in  this  neighbourhood  are 
those  of  Petty,  Lowcock,  Kendall,  &c.  Ralph  Kendall,  of  Nessfield, 
who  made  his  will  in  1716,  bequeathed  dwelling-houses,  barns, 
lands  and  tenements  that  he  bought  of  Jonathan  Fort  in  the 
townfields  of  Nessfield,  also  land  he  bought  from  William  and 
Richard  Bullock  called  Priest  Ridding.  His  son  Richard  Kendall, 
born  in  1708,  lived  at  the  old  farm  of  Grassgarths  in  the  parish  of 
Weston,  where  the  Kendalls  had  resided  since  the  Reformation,  and 


SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY    HOUSE,    NESSFIELD. 

was  father  of  the  first  Richard  Kendall  of  Norwood,  as  well  as 
ancestor  of  Samuel  Pullan  who  lived  at  Hardisty  Farm  in  Langbar 
a  century  ago. 

Five  centuries  ago  there  were  at  least  a  score  families  living  at 
Nessfield,  and  in  1378  the  Poll  Tax  gives  the  name  of  Nicholas  de 
Scardeburghe,  esquire,  as  the  principal  tax  payer  at  Nessfield.  He 
was  of  the  family  of  Scarborough  who  were  large  landowners  at 
Glusburn  in  the  old  parish  of  Kildwick,  and  the  said  Nicholas  I  find 
was  a  party  to  several  property  transactions  in  this  parish  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  Their  old  family  mansion,  a 
restored  Elizabethan  house,  dated  1587  (ten  or  a  dozen  years  ago 
when  I  saw  it,  one  of  the  oldest  house-dates  in  Craven,  it  was  quite 


269 

legible),  is  still  standing  by  the  main  road  at  Glusburn.  Probably 
the  oldest  local  family,  of  whose  original  ancestory,  history  has  no 
record,  is  that  of  Nessfield  or  Nesfield,  as  the  name  and  place  are 
variously  spelt,  and  who  perhaps  sprung  from  the  old  Teutonic 
settlers,  took  their  name  from  the  ancient  fortified  site  I  have  already- 
explained.  Their  name  occurs  in  the  oldest  local  deeds  and  charters, 
shewing  their  relationship  to  the  Plumptons,  and  at  Bolton  Abbey  I 
have  seen  a  box  of  about  a  score  old  deeds,  some  of  them  much 
tattered  and  decayed,  all  carefully  mounted  by  a  member  of  the 
family,  relating  to  grants  and  bonds  made  to  and  by  various  scions 
of  this  ancient  house.  The  family,  however,  appear  to  have  left 
Nessfield  and  to  have  settled  at  Knaresbro'  in  or  before  the  time  of 
Edward  III.  From  an  unpublished  document  in  the  Public  Record 
Office  I  find  that  in  1367  a  William  de  Nessefeld  gave  20  marks  for 
pardon  of  the  trespass  which  he  made  by  acquiring  to  himself  and 
his  heirs  a  certain  annual  rent  of  10  marks  issuing  out  of  the  manor 
of  Conyngham  and  the  Keepership  of  the  free  chase  and  warren  of 
Kirkby  Malzeard  and  Nidderdale  from  John  de  Mowbray,  Lord  of 
the  Isle  of  Axholme,  who  held  the  same  of  the  King  in  chief,  and 
entering  upon  them  without  the  license  of  the  King.  I  have  elsewhere 
cited  an  indenture  dated  1362  of  Wm.  de  Nessefeld  of  Scotton,  M.P. 
for  Co.  York  in  1368  and  Ismania,  his  wife,*  and  in  the  Poll  Tax  of 
1378  for  the  vill  of  Knaresburgh  appear  the  names  of  Robert  de 
Nesfield,  franklain,  and  his  wife,  taxed  at  3s  4d,  and  of  their  grown-up 
daughter,  Imayn  de  Nessfeld,  taxed  at  4d.  An  influential  branch 
of  the  family  was  likewise  settled  at  Flasby  in  Craven  before  the  date 
of  this  Poll  Tax,  A.D.  1378.  One  of  the  Bolton  Abbey  deeds  cites  a 
renunciation  by  Thomas  son  of  William  Grandorge,  of  all  claim  to 
Flasby  in  favour  of  his  niece,  Margaret,  the  wife  of  William  Nesfield, 
36th  Edward  III  (1362).  A  pedigree  of  the  "  Nasfields  of  Flasby" 
appears  in  the  Harleian  Society's  Publications,  vol.  16.  The  present 
representatives  of  the  family  trace  their  origin  to  the  neighbourhood 
of  Londesborough  in  the  East  Riding,  the  old  seat  of  the  Cliffords. 

The  church  at  Nessfield,  previously  referred  to,  is  a  very  neat 
edifice  in  the  Early  English  style,  with  seat  accommodation  for  120 
worshippers.  It  occupies  a  site  given  by  the  Duke  of  Devonshire, 
and  the  building  was  consecrated  by  the  Bishop  of  Richmond  on 
August  25th,  1892. 

Much  more  might  be  written  on  this  retired  little  place,  its 
bygone  worthies  and  old-time  "  characters,"  did  space  permit.  The 
long  swing-bridge  over  the  Wharfe  connecting  the  place  with 
Addingham  was  erected  about  four  years  ago.  Before  it  was  put  up 
communication  with  the  two  sides  of  the  river  was  by  way  of  Bolton 
or  Ilkley  bridges,  a  journey  of  some  miles  to  or  from  Addingham. 

.S'cc  tlu-  author's  Xiddvrdalc,  pag'f  337. 


CHAPTER     XIX. 


PRE-NORMAN    ADDINGHAM. 

Banishment  of  an  Archbishop  of  York  to  Adding-ham  in  A.D.  870 — Abounding'  pre- 
historic sites — Discovery  of  a  bronze  spear-head  Roman  road  through  Addingham 
— The  coaching'  days — Close  House  Roman  camp  on  Counter  Hill— Prehistoric 
tumulus — Ancient  boundaries— Curious  field-names — Local  discoveries. 

;-^f  ONG  before  the  first  historic  mention  of  Addingham  in 
the  ninth  century,  when  the  Christian  Archbishop  of 
York  was  banished  to  "Hatyngham  in  valle  quae 
vocatur  Hwervedale,"  by  the  pagan  Danes  (A  D  870), 
the  district,  as  I  have  amply  shewn  in  the  chapter  on 
Rumbalds  Moor,  had  been  one  of  the  most  important  centres  of 
religious  life  in  the  north.  The  Danish  ravages  put  an  end  to  the 
public  worship  of  Almighty  God  over  a  great  part  of  Yorkshire  and 
many  devout  Christians  must  then  have  found  their  way  to  this 
ancient  stronghold  of  the  faith,  there  to  find  safety  and  shelter  among 
the  sacred,  protective  rocks  of  St.  Rumolds'  Moor.  What  strife  there 
was  hereabouts  in  these  early  days  of  Roman  and  Saxon  and  Dane, 
history  does  not  recount,  and  we  are  left  to  put  together  as  best  we 
can  the  story  as  it  is  revealed  to  us  in  the  remains  of  ancient  dike 
and  camp  and  mound.  Year  by  year  have  I  been  in  this  locality 
until  my  note-books  are  full  of  various  reminiscences  ;  of  notes  and 
plans  of  earthworks,  camps,  and  cairns  and  ancient  sites  in  and 
about  this  interesting  parish,  that  to  tell  the  story  of  Addingham 
from  its  first  occupation  would  absorb  a  whole  volume.  Some  time 
ago  when  I  was  looking  at  an  old  bronze  spear-head  which  had  been 
picked  up  some  twenty-five  years  ago  by  a  man  called  Young  Steele, 
of  Addingham,  who  found  it  sticking  out  of  the  beck-side  not  far 
from  the  bar-house  on  the  Lippersley  side  of  the  Silsden  road  below 
the  Roman  camp,  what  images  of  contesting  forces,  of  feud  and 
warfare  did  not  that  old  relic  awake!  Yet  long  before  the  sturdy 
soldier  from  ancient  Rome  had  borne  that  weapon  of  bronze  through 
old  Addingham,  there  had  been  natives  of  the  place  who  had  used 
weapons  and  implements  of  stone  and  flint  before  bronze  was  known 
in  these  parts  in  the  first  century  A.D.* 

Many  an  ancient  trod  of  the  early  Britons,  paved  in  the  after- 
times  for  public  service,  traverses  the  parish,  the  most  important  of 

*  It  must  not  be  assumed  that  bronze  was  not  known  in  England  before  this  date, 
as  Caesar  distinctly  asserts  (vide  Lib.  v.  12)  that  bronze  was  imported  into  this  country 
in  his  time,  60-44  B-c- 


27* 

these  being  the  present  Street,  which  runs  by  Gildersber*  and  Street 
House  over  the  moor  by  the  Roman  camp  on  Counter  Hill  towards 
Skipton.  I  have  followed  this  road  (which  is  now  disused  over  a 
great  part  of  the  way),  from  Addingham  over  Draughton  Heights  to 
the  old  castled  town  of  Skipton,  between  which  place  and  the  camp 
at  Broughton  it  is  lost.  Precious  little  can  be  seen  now  of  the  work 
originated  by  the  Romans,  as  in  the  last  century  the  road  was 
re-made  and  widened  for  the  coaches  to  ply  their  weary  way  over 
these  wild  moorland  heights  between  Skipton  and  Long  Addingham. 
A  very  old  and  neglected  mile-stone  stands  by  the  Draughton  road 
side  and  is  marked,  "To  Skipto"  3  m.  To  Addinghani  2  m." 
seeming  to  mourn  the  departed  glory  of  this  old  coach  ing-way. 
Another  stone  pillar  stands  in  the  field  about  100  yards  to  the  east 
of  it,  and  close  by  the  Roman  road,  but  why  placed  there  I  know 
not.  It  has  been  marked  with  the  letters  "J.C."  on  its  east  face.t 

Forty  years  ago  the  road  from  here  to.  Addingham  was  all  open 
moor,  and  it  was  as  wild  and  as  rough  a  bit  of  coaching-route  as 
could  be  found  in  Britain.  The  old  road  is  now  fenced  between 
walls  from  30  to  32  feet  apart,  and  I  cannot  but  think  that  the  Roman 
highway  lay  within  its  compass,  as  much  of  the  way  on  either  side 
of  it  is  impassable  swamp,  with  here  and  there  a  deep,  spongy  beck- 
course.  These  have  been  bridged  with  large  stones  and  built  up 
with  turf.  To  the  west  of  the  Draughton  road  it  traverses  the  open 
moss,  forming  a  raised  way,  18  feet  wide,  and  ditched  on  each  side. 
Successive  repairs  have  raised  it  to  its  present  elevation  of  about 
four  feet  above  the  ditches,  and  I  should  say  a  section  cut  across  it 
would  disclose  the  Roman  substratum.  Further  on  it  runs  through  an 
enclosed  plantation  and  into  a  lane  again  above  the  head  of  Potter 
Gill,  a  deep,  secluded  ravine  descending  northwards  to  the  new  road 
between  Skipton  and  Addingham,  and  so  above  Close  House  by 
Short  Bank  towards  Skipton.  This  was  the  road  that  Thomas  Gray, 
author  of  the  immortal  Elegy,  took  when  he  journeyed  from  Skipton 
to  Otley  in  the  autumn  of  1769,  and  he  declared  Short  Bank  to  be 
the  steepest  hill  he  ever  saw  a  road  carried  over  in  England. 

I  have  heard  some  raw  stories  of  the  latter  days  of  coaching  by 
this  old  moorland  route,  of  horses  conscious  of  the  cruel  drag  before 

*  It  may  be  interesting  to  note  that  in  Oct.  1896,  a  horse  died  on  Mr.  ListerV  t'arni 
at  Gildersber,  which  was  found  to  have  in  its  stomach  a  stone,  22  in.  in  circumference 
and  12  in.  long.  The  stone  was  egg-shaped  and  weighed  15  Ibs. 

|  Perhaps  it  is  the  stone  mentioned  in  the  following  perambulation  ot  the  manor  ol 
Silsden  in  i68r :  "  Beginning  at  a  place  called  Street  Gill  and  going  from  thence  to  a 
great  stone,-  being  in  the  upper  end  of  Draughton  Pasture  (now  in  the  possession  of 
Thomas  Waynman,  of  Draughton)  and  from  thence  south-eastward  to  a  well  there 
called  Wesimbusk's  Well,  from  thence  to  a  place  called  Theefe  Thorne,  which  divydeth 
between  Skipton,  Addingham,  and  Silsden,  &c."  What  may  this  "Theefe  Thorne" 
be?  There  is  a  Gallion  Thorn  at  Grassington,  and  a  Skyrethoni,  a  hamlet  in  the  *ame 
locality. 


272 

them  refusing  to  proceed  until  fire  and  lash  had  done  their  very- 
worst.  Many  a  poor  beast  has  dropped  beneath  a  merciless  load 
in  the  effort  to  drag  the  ponderous  vehicles  through  the  deep  ruts 
of  this  stormy  fell-side.  Close  House  (my  old  ancestral  home) 
lay  nigh  this  ancient  highway,  and  many  a  sorry  tale  of  storm  and 
adventure  could  a  former  generation  of  the  folk  that  dwelt  here  have 
told  you  as  you  sat  round  the  glowing  hearth-stone,  with  the  wind 
roaring  in  the  ample  chimney,  on  wild  winter  nights.  All  the  gills 
and  crags  thereabouts  were  the  haunts  of  goblins,  elves  and  fairies , 
Close  House  itself  being  under  the  special  protection  of  a  certain 
useful  fairy  of  whom  I  will  tell  more  anon. 

To  return,  however,  to  Roman  Addingham.  Before  these 
conquerors  had  pitched  their  camp  on  Counter  Hill  it  had  been 
occupied  by  native  Britons,  and  it  was  these  primeval  wiseacres  of 
Old  Addingham  who  ordered  the  tribal  divisions  that  still  constitute 
the  boundaries  of  the  parish.  Running  on  the  Silsden  side,  where 
the  Britons  were  strongest,  by  Low  Marchup  and  Black  Beck,  and 
across  Parson  Lane  on  the  west  side  of  Counter  Hill,  this  Celtic 
division  was  adopted  by  the  Anglo-Saxon  after-comers,  as  the  A.-S. 
mark,  Norman-French  merche,  now  the  scattered  locality  of  Marchup, 
plainly  indicates.  The  terminal  "up,"  is  doubtless  a  contraction  of 
hope,  a  small  valley,  as  in  Bramhope,  Brad  hope,  sometimes  written 
Bradup.  Thus  we  see  by  such  names  how  old  landmarks  and  lines  of 
demarcation  are  respected  and  retained  from  the  remotest  times.  The 
story  of  how  the  Romans  drove  the  natives  from  this  commanding 
site  of  Counter  Hill,  of  how  debate  or  controversy  had  failed  and 
the  sword  had  to  be  drawn,  is  told  I  think  in  the  apparent  Celtic 
name  of  the  hill  (conaltradh,  Celt.  Irish  conaltra,  conversation)*  as 
also  in  the  old  bronze  spear-head  I  have  already  mentioned,  and  in 
the  lonely  isolated  mound,  to  be  seen  in  Parson  Lane  about  a 
hundred  yards  west  of  the  Celtic  boundary,  Black  Beck,  where  some 
old  dying  chief  has  called  his  friends  around  him  bidding  them 
"  heap  the  stones  of  his  renown  that  they  may  speak  to  other  years." 
It  is  a  tumulus  80  feet  in  circumference  and  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  disturbed. 

The  necessity  for  such  a  Roman  stronghold  at  this  point  is 
obvious  when  it  is  considered  that  the  whole  of  Rumbalds  Moor 
from  the  opposite  side  of  the  valley  along  Addingham  Edge  to  Ilkley 
was  one  of  the  strongest  British  positions  of  which  we  possess  sure 
evidence.  Some  idea  of  the  size  of  the  garrison  on  Counter  Hill 
may  be  obtained  when  it  is  stated  that  a  protective  earthwork  has 
completely  environed  the  whole  face  of  the  hill,  enclosing  an  area  of 

*  Riddlesden,  on  the  Anglo-Danish  boundary  of  the  parish  of  Bingley,  I  have 
shewn  to  be  the  hill  of  counsel  or  debate.  See  Old  Bingley  page  307.  Perhaps 
Counterside  in  lonely  Semerdale  betokens  some  such  debating-ground  between  later 
conquerors  and  the  primitive  lake-dwellers. 


273 

at  least  150  acres,  an  area  scarcely  less  than  that  embraced  by  the 
High  Close  encampment  at  Grassington.  There  have  been  two 
fortified  or  stockaded  camps,  one  of  which  when  broken  up  contained 
a  number  of  rude  stone  lire-places.  The  other  known  as  "Round 
Dykes"  is  thickly  overgrown  with  ling,  but  its  outline  is  almost  as 
perfect  as  when  made  seventeen  or  eighteen  centuries  ago.  The  form 
bespeaks  a  rather  late  date,  having  the  characteristic  angles,  which 
makes  the  ordinary  straight-sided  rectangle  into  an  octagon,  giving  it 
the  appearance  superficially  of  a  round  or  oval.  Its  dimensions  are 
based  on  the  most  approved  form  of  Roman  castrametation,  the 
length  being  one-third  greater  than  the  breadth,  namely  sixty  yards 
wide  and  eighty  yards  long.  A  watch-mound  has  been  thrown  up 
within  the  south-west  angle,  and  the  whole  camp  defended  with  a 
double  rampart  having  an  intervening  ditch.  There  is  an  old  and 
excellent  spring  of  water  on  the  east  side  of  the  camp,  the  site  having 
been  well  chosen,  commanding  as  it  does,  a  splendid  view  of  the 
valley  and  Street*  as  it  runs  southward  to  Olicana. 

This  is  all  within  the  watershed  of  the  Wharfe,  which  reaches  up 
to  the  Draughton  road  from  Silsden  a  little  above  High  Marchup,  an 
old  home  of  the  Breare  family.  At  Hollindrakes  farm  the  rain  water 
from  the  roof  of  the  dwelling  drains  into  the  Wharfe,  while  that  from 
the  roof  of  a  barn  adjoining  the  west  end  of  it  is  drained  into  the 
Aire.  Parson  Lane,  above  mentioned,  is  laid  at  an  elevation  of  760 
feet  above  sea-level  and  was  the  old  road  between  Silsden  and 
Addingham  before  the  present  excellent  highway  was  made  in  1826. 
It  is  doubtless  a  very  ancient  right  of  way,  though  not  used  now, 
running  just  below  Counter  Hill,  and  is  paved  in  places  with  large 
square  stones  for  the  use  of  drovers  and  foot  passengers.!  But  what 
a  road  in  the  old  times  for  vehicles!  O!  if  those  stones  could  speak! 

The  road  below  Counter  Hill  has  within  recent  years  been 
enclosed,  formerly  it  was  all  open  to  the  Moor.  The  lane  terminates 
in  the  terrible  old  coach-road  to  Skipton,  above  described,  and  opposite 
to  Cross  Bank  farm.  A  man  named  Lowcock  who  has  lived  for  nearly 
half-a  century  at  the  farmhouse  below,  tells  me  he  used  often  to 
plough  up  lumps  of  iron  scoriae  near  the  old  Roman  Street,  the 
remains  no  doubt  of  Roman  smelting  works.  The  farm  below  is 
called  Causeway  End,  and  the  fields  attached  to  the  farms  here  are 
called  Hownas  (pron.  as  how)  or  Howness,  in  which  is  a  long 
artificially-formed  earthern  bank  running  east  and  west  for  about  100 
yards  and  thrown  up  about  three  feet  above  the  ground-level.  The 

*  The  Street  gave  name  to  a  local  family  which  still  exists  in  the  neighbourhood. 
In  1371  a  complaint  was  made  against  John  del  Strete  [John  of  the  Street]  and  others 
for  obstructing  a  road  from  Brerehaugh  Thorpe  to  Brerehaugh  Grange.  See  Yorks. 
Arch.Jl.,  Rec.  Ser.  xvii-ii5. 

t  In  the  Addingham  Township  Books  I  find  an  entry  under  date,  1747,  of  £2  paid 

"lor  eij;-lltrvM   roods  of   C'a\v«'\    oil  yc   Moor." 


274 

origin  or  purpose  of  it  is  not  known.  There  is  also  an  extensive 
range  of  land  in  three  several  tenancies,  called  Haidness  or  Adeness, 
with  a  gill-beck  beside  it  called  Adeness  Gill,  adjoining  Hownas,  and 
this  Adeness  is  a  piece  of  "gated"  uncultivated  land,  comprising 
eight-and-a-half  cow-gates  to  the  three  tenants  who  occupy  it,  and 
near  it  is  a  two-acre  pasture  called  Simon  Close.  Whether  this  is  the 
Celtic  Simon,  explained  in  the  account  of  Simon  Seat,  I  cannot 
positively  say.  There  are  also  many  other  ancient  sites,  camps,  dikes, 
roads  and  ramparts,  which  I  must  leave  unnoticed  for  the  present. 


CHAPTKK    XX. 


ALL  ABOUT  AnniM.iiAM    I<ROM   TIII    NUKMAN  CONMJI  !•,->!. 

l.itllc    hitherto    recorded   ;ilx>iu    Addinghum     Addin^liain    in    Cumberland      I  )omesda\ 
testimony      Meaning  of  Addingham      Historic  evidence-;     The  Halll<-  cit  Modden 
The      Reformation     A      local      martyr     The      Parish     Church      Local     families     A 
centenarian      Remarkable   discoveries    -Titlie-harn      K\cnt*   at    Addingham   during 
the  Civil  \\'ar     Abstracts  from  the  old  parish  books     Pinfold  and  ducking-stool 
Petty  Sessions     Old  customs     Some  old  houses     The  old  School     The  manor-house 
1    ufieldllall      Local  Nonconformists     Old  trades     The  power-loom  riots. 

KYOXD  the  few  paragraphs  recorded  by  Whitaker  little 
has  ever  been  printed  about  this  interesting  old  parish, 
whose  written  evidences  antecede  the  Conquest  of  A.D. 
1066.  There  is,  by  the  way,  another  Addingham,  in 
Cumberland  (where  are  some  fine  early  stone  crosses), 
but  as  Cumberland  (being  then  not  in  England),  is  not  reviewed  in  the 
Conqueror's  great  survey,  we  have  no  contemporary  mention  of  this 
place.  In  Domesday  our  Wharfedale  Addingham  is  described  as 
Ediham,  where  one  Gamelbar,  a  large  landowner  in  Yorkshire,  had 
two  carucates  of  land  to  be  taxed,  sufficient  for  one  plough.  He  was 
deprived  of  this  and  the  property  was  given  by  the  Conqueror  to  one 
of  his  followers,  Gislebert  Tison,  who  in  1086  had  three  villanes  or 
tenants  in  bondage  and  one  bordar  or  cottager  there  with  two  ploughs 
and  two  acres  of  meadow.  There  was  also  an  extensive  wood. 
During  the  gallant  strife  between  the  original  owners  and  the  Norman 
invaders  the  place  had  been  well-nigh  ruined,  and  the  value  of  the 
estate  reduced  by  nearly  one-half.  So  the  record  tells  us.  The  King 
retained  one  carucate  to  himself,  calling  it  a  royal  manor,  thus  we 
had  a  manor  within  a  manor.  In  the  final  adjustment  of  the  survey 
the  King  is  stated  to  hold  one  carucate  and  Gislebert  Tison  one 
carucate,  while  both  carucates  were  stated  to  belong  to  the  great  fee 
of  Bolton  (Abbey),  that  had  belonged  to  Earl  Edwin.  Tyson's  share 
subsequently  fell  to  the  King.  The  name  no  doubt  indicates  the 
home  of  the  descendants  of  the  original  Anglian  owner,  one  Eddi ' ;  the 
participle  ed  in  the  name  being  used  by  the  Saxon  poet  Caedmon  in 
the  sense  of  certain  continuance  or  regeneration.  Headingley. 
anciently  Hedinleia,  has  probably  the  same  meaning. 

Addingham,  which  included  part  of  Beamsley,  was  merged  in 
the  great  honour  and  fee  of  Skipton  on  its  formation  by  grant  of  the 
Conqueror  to  his  powerful  aider  in  the  Conquest  Robert  de  Romille. 
The  latter  gave  Beamsley  to  the  Mauleverers  while  Addingham  was 
granted  at  some  subsequent  early  period  to  the  Vavasours,  who 


27* 

continued  mesne  lords  for  several  centuries.  The  precise  date  of  the 
transfer  is  not  known,  but  it  would  be  after  the  forfeiture  of  Tyson, 
temp,  Henry  I.,  and  it  would  appear  from  the  grant  of  free  warren  at 
Addingham  in  1251  to  have  then  belonged  to  John  le  Vavasour.  In 
1284  three  carucates  in  Addingham  are  stated  to  be  held  of  the 
castle  of  Skipton  by  the  rent  of  3^d.,  and  in  1302  William  le  Vavasor 
held  from  the  lord  of  Skipton /#///•  carucates,  a  marked  increase  due 
to  the  rapid  extension  of  cultivation  during  a  very  prosperous  era  in 
the  history  of  Yorkshire.  But  the  weak  government  of  Edward  II., 
followed  by  the  disastrous  battle  of  Bannockburn  in  1314,  completely 
subverted  one  of  the  most-  progressive  eras  in  northern  history , 
starvation  and  bankruptcy,  with  their  concomitants  squalor  and 
plague,  reducing  the  country  to  an  ebb  which  took  nearly  two 
centuries  to  recover. 

When  the  poll-tax  was  levied  by  Richard  II.  in  1378  for  carrying 
on  the  wars  with  France,  the  people  of  Addingham,  we  may  be  sure 
reluctantly  contributed  gs.  iod.,  the  sum  at  which  the  whole  township 
of  Adyngham  (so  spelled)  was  assessed.  Each  married  couple,  and 
there  were  twenty-nine,  paid  4d.,  except  one  Wm.  Manne,  the  fuller, 
and  his  wife,  who  paid  6d.  Singularly  no  unmarried  persons  are 
registered  at  Addingham  under  this  levy,  and  one  is  at  a  loss  to  know 
what  had  become  of  all  the  young  folk.  The  tax  must  have  been  a 
severe  strain  on  the  inhabitants,  following  so  soon  on  the  Scottish 
raids  and  the  Black  Death  of  1350,  which  carried  off,  it  is  said,  half 
the  clergy  in  Yorkshire. 

In  1452  Henry  Vavasour  Esq.,  is  stated  to  have  held  the  manor 
together  with  the  advowson  of  the  church,  and  with  this  family  it 
continued  till  1714,  when  the  living  was  presented  to  as  a  Catholic 
benefice,  in  possession  of  the  University  of  Cambridge.  The  Smith 
family  have  held  the  manor  for  about  a  century,  but  by  what  title  I 
have  been  unable  to  ascertain.  Richard  Smith  Esq.,  of  London,  is 
the  present  lord  of  the  manor. 

During  the  Scottish  invasion  which  led  to  the  crowning  battle  of 
Flodden  in  1513,  the  lusty  lads  of  Wharfedale  gallantly  followed  the 
"  Shepherd  Lord  "  to  the  field  of  victory,  or  as  an  old  ballad  says  : 

From  Penyghent  to  Pendle  Hill, 

From  Linton  to  Long  Addingham, 
And  all  that  Craven  coasts  did  tell, 

They  with  the  lusty  Clifford  came. 

Addingham  contributed  nine  men,  of  whom  William  Wade  was  able 
horsed  and  harnessed,  the  others  were  bill-men  and  archers.  Their 
names  were  Henry  Man,  Richard  Cryer,  Richard  Riley,  Richard 
Lofthouse,  Thomas  .Stotte,  Christ.  Swyer,  Thomas  Barker,  and 
John  Greene. 

The  next  great  event  was  the  Reformation,  which  gave  unending 
trouble  in  Wharfedale,  as  I  have  shewn  elsewhere.  There  were  two 


277 

houses,  with  appurtenances,  in  Addingham,  which  paid  8s.  4d. 
annually  towards  maintaining  the  chantry  of  St.  Nicholas  in  Skipton 
Church,  which  was  dissolved  at  this  time.  They  then  probably  went 
to  form  part  of  the  endowment  of  Skipton  Grammar  School  in  1548. 
Many  of  the  farmers  and  others  had  been  largely  dependent  on  the 
neighbouring  monastery  at  Bolton,  and  their  livings  were  gone  and 
many  were  thrown  on  the  roads.  The  bulk  of  the  people  prudently 
and  quickly  became  converts  to  the  new  religion,  but  there  were 
many  who  resolutely  stuck  to  the  faith  of  their  fathers  and  had 
to  pay  dearly  for  their  pertinacity.  One  unfortunate  native  of 
Addingham,  named  Richard  Kirkeman,  seems  to  have  escaped  the 
"heresy"  of  the  Pilgrimage  of  Grace,  but  was  taken  in  1582  before 
Justice  Wortley,  two  miles  from  Wakefield,  and  refusing  to  give  up 
his  pious  adherence  to  the  old  ways  of  the  monasteries,  was  thrown 
into  York  Castle,  and  brought  hence  to  the  gallows  and  publicly 
hanged  Aug.  22nd  1582,  a  martyr  to  his  religion. 

The  church  (St.  Peter's)  at  Addingham,  though  not  mentioned 
in  Domesday,  is  of  high  antiquity  and  doubtless  owes  its  origin 
to  the  munificence  of  one  of  the  early  Vavasours.  Unfortunately  not 
a  vestige  remains  of  the  original  building,  nor  cross  nor  stone  of 
any  kind  is  left  to  shew  that  God  was  worshipped  here  in  Norman 
centuries,  as  we  know  He  was  even  in  those  far-off  days  when 
Archbishop  Wulfhere  sought  Christian  protection  from  the  idolatrous 
practices  of  the  Viking  invaders  more  than  a  thousand  years  ago. 
Indeed  a  more  infamous  annihilation  of  what  must  have  been  a 
conspicuous  monument  of  Christian  antiquity,  the  emblem  of  a 
heritage  of  which  few  parishes  could  boast,  cannot  surely  be  found  in 
the  county  of  broad-acres!  The  church  has  evidently  been  rebuilt 
under  the  patronage  of  the  Vavasours  early  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII, 
as  the  windows  and  columns  of  the  north  aisle  plainly  prove.  Leonard 
Vavasour,  of  Addingham,  gent.,  was  buried  in  the  chancel  in  1598. 
The  arms  of  Vavasour  also  appear  on  one  of  the  capitals  of  the  piers. 
The  chancel  was  rebuilt  in  1858.  The  tower  and  south  side  have 
been  wholly  rebuilt  in  the  most  debased  style  of  churchwardens'  Gothic, 
displaying  an  utter  disregard  of  historic  preception  and  artistic  taste. 
Indeed  the  old  church  has  been  ruthlessly  shorn  of  all  the  graces  of 
architectural  similitude,  and  like  a  bride  who  has  lost  her  lover,  one 
half  the  church  is  left  to  mourn  the  loss  of  its  consort. 

Moreover,  any  interest  which  the  internal  walls  has  possessed 
has  been  completely  obliterated  with  a  thick  coating  of  lime  wash, 
renewed  again  and  again.  At  the  west  end  of  the  north  wall  is  an 
Elizabethan  Scripture  text,  now  partly  lost  beneath  a  coating  of  yellow 
wash.  Also  on  the  west  wall  near  the  entrance  from  the  south  porch 
were  two  ancient  frescoes  representing  Time  and  Eternity,  the  one 
holding  an  hour-glass  and  scythe  and  the  other  a  torch.  It  was  not 
unusual  to  depict  "  Father  Time  "  at  the  entrances  of  old  churches, 


278 

as  a  warning  to  passing  generations  of  worshippers  of  the  fleeting 
hour  of  mortal  life,  but  such  emblematical  paintings  are  now  rarely 
seen  in  country  churches.  The  figures  at  Addingham  are  life-size 
and  are  unfortunately  covered  by  yellow  wash  as  well  as  by  a  modern 
gallery,  which  was  reseated  about  ten  years  ago.  Moses  and  Aaron 
were  also  depicted  over  the  chancel-arch,  in  a  position  sanctioned  by 
the  early  Church  to  hold  the  two  tables  of  commandments.  These 
have  been  also  washed  out.  There  was  a  similar  painting  on  the 
wainscot  of  the  screen  in  Otley  Church,  bearing  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
the  Commandments  and  the  Creed,  referred  to  on  page  64. 

There  are  numerous  sacred  memorials  in  the  church.  Within 
the  chancel  are  these  : 

To  the  Rev.  Wm.  Thompson,  upwards  of  40  years  rector  of  Addingham,  who  died 
Nov.  27th,  1786,  aged  86  years;  also  Mary,  his  widow  who  died  June  ist,  1789,  aged 
75.  Also  Elizabeth,  their  daughter,  who  died  in  infancy,  1762.  Also  to  the  Rev.  Wm. 
Thompson,  their  son,  who  was  rector  of  Addingham,  who  died  Nov.  28th,  1789,  aged 
33,  and  Mary  his  wife  who  died  Nov.  26th  1789,  aged  22.  A  brass  on  the  chancel  floor 
gives  the  date  of  her  death  as  Nov.  271)1,  and  continues  "  Both  buried  on  one  day,  and 
in  one  grave,  cut  down  in  the  prime  of  life  like  two  beautiful  flowers." 

John,  third  son  of  John  Cunliffe  Esq.,  of  Addingham,  who  d.  Nov.  2nd  1804,  in 
his  2ist  year. 

John  Cunliffe  Esq.,  of  Addingham,  who  d.  March  171)1,  1^13,  in  his  7istyear;  also 
Mary  his  relict,  and  daughter  of  the  late  Rev.  Wm.  Thompson,  formerly  rector  of  this 
place.  She  d.  June  i^th,  1834,  in  her  8oth  year. 

Wm.  Cunliffe  Esq.,  D.L.,  J.P.,  of  Farfield  Hall,  d.  loth  Feb.,  1823,  aged  47.  lit- 
was  the  second  son  of  the  late  John  Cunliffe  Esq.,  of  Addingham. 

Eliza,  wife  of  Richard  Parr,  of  Algarkirk,  Co.  Lincoln,  and  second  daughter  of 
John  Cunliffe  Esq.,  of  Addingham,  who  d.  June  3rd,  1809,  aged  31,  leaving  an  only 
daughter. 

Thos.  L.  T.  Cunliffe,  Esq.,  youngest  son  of  the  late  John  Cunliffe,  Esq.,  of 
Addingham,  who  d.  May  2nd,  1851,  aged  62  years. 

Thos.  Thompson  Pickersgill,  son  of  John  and  Sophia  Pickersgill,  of  Tavistock 
Square,  London,  and  grandson  of  late  John  Cunliffe  Esq.,  of  this'  parish,  who  d.  at 
Glasgow,  July  i8th  1847,  aged  26  years. 

John  Ellis  Esq.,  of  Addingham,  who  d.  Jan.  4th,  1847,  aged  70  years;  also  Harriet 
Ellis,  wife  [widow]  of  above,  who  was  third  daughter  of  late  John  Cunliffe  Esq.  She  d. 
Dec.  3ist,  1866,  aged  87. 

Rev.  Wm.  Coates  Thompson,  rector  of  this  parish  for  55  years.  Born  March  6th, 
1815.  Died  April  22nd,  1893.  He  was  the  younger  son  of  the  late  Rev.  John  Coates, 
grandson  of  the  late  John  Cuncliffe  Esq.  and  great-grandson  of  the  late  Rev.  Wm. 
Thompson. 

Thomas  Thompson  Cunliffe  Lister  Esq.,  J.P.,  died  June  I7th,  1892,  aged  71  years. 

Other  memorial  tablets  in  the  church  are  to  Wm.  Cunliffe  Lister  Esq.,  Barrister- 
at-law  and  M.P.  for  the  Borough  of  Bradford,  eldest  son  of  Ellis  Cuncliffe  Lister  Esq., 
of  Manningham  Hall,  Co.  York,  who  d.  Aug.  I2th,  1841,  aged  31  years.*  Also  of 
Ellis,  third  son  of  Ellis  Cunliffe  Lister  Esq.,  M.P.,  who  d.  May  2Oth,  1833,  aged 
20  years. 

John  Pickersgill  Esq.,  of  Tavistock  Sq.,  London,  and  Netherne  House,  Merstham, 

Mr.  W.  C.  Lister  had  been  returned  M.P.  for  Bradford  in  1841,  in  conjunction 
with  the  late  Mr.  John  Hardy,  father  of  Lord  Cranbrook,  but  being  taken  ill  while  on 
a  visit  to  Fartield  Hall,  he  died  there  within  a  few  weeks  of  his  election.  He  was  a 
gentleman  of  considerable  ability  and  promise. 


279 

Sum  v,  who  il.  Nov.  i  ilh,  1805,  agc<  1  So  years.  Also  of  Sophia,  hi-  widow,  youngcsi 
daughter  of  the  late  John  Cimliffe  Kso.,  of  thi-  parish,  who  <1.  Dec.  Joth,  1874,  aged 
84  year--. 

TluTc  art-  al-o  sonic  beautiful  stained  memorial  windows  io  Rev.  John  C'oates,  40 
vears  rector  of  this  parish,  who  d.  Dec.  i(>th  1830,  aged  07  years.  AKo  Mary,  his  wife, 
who  d.  June  6th,  1867,  aged  ox)  years.  .SVv  tablet  above. 

John  C'oates,  elder  son  of  Rev.  John  Coates,  of  Addingham,  who  d.  June  igtli, 
'•S75-  aged  63  years. 

Anne,  wife  of  Samuel  Cunliffe  Lister  1-Nq.,  [now  Lord  Masham)  who  died 
March  ^rd,  1875. 

John  Cunliffe  Pickersgill  Cunliffe,  who  d.  Oct.  6th,  1X73,  aged  54  years;  also  his 
son,  John  Cunliffe,  who  d.  June  iHth,  1879,  aped  jq  years. 

Saml.  Margerison  Coates,  who  d.  June  ."?oth,  1861,  aged  io  years;  also  Mary 
Coates,  d.  Oct.  nth,  1866,  aged  14  years. 

The  east  window  of  three  lights  is  a  memorial  to  Mills  I'unliffc  Lister  Kay  LM|.,  ol 
Manningham,  and  Farfield  Hall,  eldest  son  of  John  C'undiffe  Ksq.,  of  Adding'ham,  who 
d.  Nov.  24th,  185-5,  in  his  Soth  year;  and  also  of  Mary  his  wife,  who  d.  March  6th, 
1844.  [The  parents  of  Lord  Masham]. 

In  the  churchyard  is  a  sundial  inscribed  "  — Topham  and  John 
Fieldhouse,  1707."  The  oldest  legible  stone  I  have  noted  is  to  John 
Bramley,  of  Gildersber,  who  died  the  last  day  of  Sept.  1695.  Another 
interesting  and  now  almost  obliterated  inscription  commemorates 
a  local  centenarian  in  the  person  of  Mary,  relict  of  Sylvester 
Carterson,  who  in  spite  of  a  "  variety  of  domestic  calamities,"  died 
in  the  "full  possession  of  her  faculties,"  Jan.  3ist,  1808,  aged  101. 
At  the  south-east  part  of  the  churchyard  there  is  a  curious  old  grave- 
stone, uninscribed,  which  is  said  to  cover  the  remains  of  some 
bygone  village  blacksmith.  It  is  two  feet  long  and  a  foot  in  width 
with  a  central  trough-like  aperture,  in  all  probability  the  "  cooling- 
stone  "  which  the  old  worthy  had  used  through  life. 

Part  of  the  old  Church  Orchard  has  been  added  to  the  burial- 
yard  on  the  west  side,  and  many  human  bones  and  entire  skeletons 
have  been  found.  In  fact  it  is  not  possible  to  dig  anywhere  here 
without  finding  bones.  Singularly  two  of  the  skeletons  were 
discovered  quite  entire  interred  with  their  faces  downward.  No 
relics  occur  with  these  remains.  But  at  the  east  end  of  the  churchyard 
a  skeleton  was  discovered  together  with  a  plain  brass  crucifix  six 
inches  long.  This  was  in  a  spot  not  previously  disturbed.  The  site 
has  been  no  doubt  appropriated  for  burial  long  before  the  first 
historical  records  of  the  church.  For  some  distance  westward  the  land 
falls,  having  the  appearance  of  an  artificial  scarp,  and  at  the  south- 
western extremity  is  a  hollow  locally  known  as  the  Monks'  Fish-pond. 
But  I  cannot  learn  that  any  land  here  was  ever  appropriated  to  a 
monastery. 

I  have  examined  the  old  parish  books  and  find  an  interesting 
terrier  of  the  church  property  dated  1781,  and  another  dated  i7,S6. 
which  mentions  the  ancient  tithe-barn,  with  a  stable  adjoining  the 
west  end,  being  together  twenty-three  yards  long  and  six  yards  wide, 


280 

all  covered  with  straw  thatch.  This  old  building  stood  on  the  north 
west  side  of  the  present  rectory,  where  is  now  the  fowl-yard,  and  was 
pulled  down  when  the  rectory  was  built  in  1808.  A  list  of  the 
incumbents  has  been  printed  from  Torre  in  Whitaker's  Craven  (3rd 
edit.)  from  the  earliest  recorded  institution  in  1279,  down  to  the  late 
rector,  the  Rev.  Wm.  Coates  Thompson,  who  died  in  1893.  He 
was  succeeded  by  the  Rev.  Joseph  W.  Hall,  the  present  courteous 
rector,  who  had  been  previously  curate. 

In  the  churchwardens'  accounts  of  the  parish,  which  extend  back 
to  the  year  1620,  I  have  found  many  suggestive  and  interesting 
items,  particularly  those  relating  to  the  great  Civil  War,  which  seems 
to  have  provoked  a  good  deal  of  preparation  and  stir  in  Wharfedale. 
In  1628  there  appears  an  item  for  carrying  a  letter  to  my  Lord 
Fairfax.  In  1634  several  payments  to  soldiers  with  passes,  that  is 
men  who  had  received  their  discharge  or  were  incapacitated  from 
service,  making  their  way  home.  If  a  man  had  lost  his  pass  he  was 
detained  until  a  satisfactory  account  of  him  was  forthcoming.  After 
this  such  warlike  entries  become  more  numerous.  Thus  in  1639  I 
find  the  following: — 

Payed  for  three  pounds  of  gunpowder  ...         ...         ...         ...  ...  vis. 

Bestowed  on  the  soulders  att  Morton  and  Silsden  in  ale      ...  iis. 

For  the  soulders  wages  att  that  time      .                        ..,          ...  ...  viiis. 

For  my  charges        ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  ...  is.  iiiirf. 

Payed  to  the  soulders  att  Rippon            ...          ...          ...          ...  . ..  viiis. 

Payed  for  their  wages  att  that  time        ...          ...          ...          ...  ...  vis. 

Payed  for  two  sword  girdles        ...           ..          ...          ...          ...  ....  iis.  viiirf. 

Payed  for  the  armes  mending  and  a  pike  at  Knaresbrough  . . .  viiirf. 

Payed  for  oyle  bottels  and  rushes  for  muskets            ...          ...  ...  iis.  iiiirf. 

Payed  to  the  Captaine  I3th  of  July  att  Kighley          iiis.  viiirf. 

Payed  for  the  soulders  wages      ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  ...  viiis. 

For  my  charges  att  that  time        ...          ...          ...          ...           ..  ...  is.  ii'i'id. 

Bestowed  on  the  soulders  in  meat  and  drinke            ...          ...  ...  iis.  viiirf. 

Given  to  two  soulders  which  had  a  passe  the  xxixth  of  Maie,  and 

for  a  warrant  att  Denton  the  same  daye    ...         ...         ...  ...  xiirf. 

For  carriing  the  armor  to  Skipton  and  home  again  ...         ...  ...  is. 

How  strange  in  these  days  of  advanced  warfare,  of  repeater  rifles  and 
Lyddite  shells,  to  find  our  ancient  fathers  ministering  to  the  freedom 
of  England  from  "all  foreign  enemies,"  with  "oyle  bottels  and  rushes 
for  musketts"!  In  1638  I  find  John  Pulan  was  paid  2d.  for  bringing 
a  letter  from  York.  In  1639  there  are  payments  of  2d.  in  each  case 
"for  a  hue  and  crye."  Some  one  decamped,  some  one  wanted  ! 
The  old  Addingham  lock-up  awaiting  the  capture!  In  1642  more 
disabled  soldiers ;  two  with  wives  and  children  go  to  the  Addingham 
constable  and  get  4d.  among  them.  Then  in  1656  we  find  Richard 
Shires  is  paid  2S.  for  conducting  his  "catiffe"*  daughter  to  the  Wells 

*  "Which  I  am  sure  you  would  full  sore  repent,  If  I  to  you  her  deeds  should  open 
make,  And  that  you  should  so  greatly  damage  me,  for  such  a  wicked  catlve  as  is  she." 
Harrington  Orlando  B.  xxi. 


a8i 

th;it  she  might  recover  her  health,  and  in  the  same  year  Hugh  Teal 
does  the  like  journey  with  his  "catiffe  daughter."  Then  in  1695  there 
is  an  official  order  about  militia  men,  calling  on  the  stalwart  sons  of 
Addingham  to  provide  men  for  the  national  defences.  It  reads  : — 

\\Y,  the  Deputy  l.ieut.  tor  the  Parts  at<  in-said  do  herein  order  and  appoint  you 
Henry  Wright  to  lincl  and  provide  one  Mifticient  loot-soldier  to  he  armed  with  a  mus(|uet, 
•md  \ou  \\'m.  Midgli 'V  one-  sut'ticient  soldier  to  he  armed  with  a  musquet,  and 
yiui  \\rm.  Bramlev  one  to  he  armed  with  a  musquet,  and  you  Win.  Spencer  one  to 
he  armed  with  a  musquet,  and  \oii  Jonathan  Parkinson  one  to  he  armed  with  a  pyke, 
and  you  \V'm.  Corksliott  one  to  lie  armed  with  a  pyke,  and  such  other  armcs  as  the  Act 
of  Parliament  provides,  in  that  ease  directs  to  the  Militia  of  this  Riding  lor  his  Majesties 
Service  tor  and  in  respect  ot  ve  several  Estates  in  the  Constabulary  ot  Addingham  and 
that  you  have  the  several  soldiers  and  arms  in  readiness  for  the  said  service,  and  we 
furthermore  order  and  appoint  the  several  freeholders  ot  the  said  Township  not  otherwise 
charged  to  be  Contributors  towards  the  said  charge  according  to  the  proportion  of  their 
several  estates  within  the  said  Township.  Given  under  our  hands  and  seals  this  second 
dav  ol  July  Anno  Dom.  1695 

II.   FAIRFAX 
I..   PII.KINGTON 
RoHKUT  HKWANDS 

In  1700  I  find  a  contribution  of  £&  ros.  made  by  the  Addingham 
authorities  towards  building  and  repairing  the  Castle  at  York.  This 
must  have  been  in  compliance  with  the  Act  of  Parliament  authorising 
a  tax  of  3d.  in  the  pound  on  the  county  to  defray  the  expenses  of 
renewing  the  part  now  called  the  "old  buildings,"  erected  chiefly 
with  stone  brought  from  the  ruins  of  St.  Mary's  Abbey.  In  the  same 
year  there  is  paid  to  Richard  Musgrave  the  sum  of  4S.  for  "ground 
breaking  for  ye  pinfold  wall,"  and  8|d.  for  mending  the  ducking-stool. 
It  seems  they  had  women  scolds  in  Addingham  at  that  day,  who 
got  a  sousing  amid  the  mingled  jeers  and  laughter  of  the  usual  crowd 
of  spectators.  No  one  knows  now  where  the  old  ducking-stool  was 
placed,  and  few  will  remember,  too,  the  village-stocks,  which  stood 
against  the  garden  wall  of  High  House,  near  the  Fleece  inn,  where 
Mr.  Cunliffe,  the  local  magistrate,  used  to  sit  with  imperial  power 
endeavouring  to  correct,  after  well-judged  hearing,  rural  reprobates 
and  all  such  violators  of  the  common  peace.  At  that  time  fifty  years 
ago,  the  public-house  was  the  usual  meeting  place  of  the  local  Justices 
as  well  as  of  the  churchwardens  for  the  discussion  of  parish  business. 
In  1747  it  seems  Aynam  Bridge  was  chargeable  on  the  parish,  and 
is.  6d.  was  then  paid  for  "stooping  and  railing"  it.*  Sometimes  as 
much  as  55.  would  be  spent  by  the  village  tribunal  in  refreshments 
while  discussing  the  payment  or  otherwise  of  a  is.  6d.  bill.  In  1747 
6d.  was  spent  on  a  copy  of  "ye  Act  against  swearing,"  and  ics.  icd. 
"spent  on  Holy  Thursday,  as  usual."  This  was  a  great  day  in 
Ascension  week  at  Addingham  and  surrounding  places,  when  the 
school-children  got  a  holiday  and  there  was  much  feasting  and 

*  In  a  survey  made  in   1752  "Addingham  Bridge"  is  stated  to  he   repairable  by 
"Addingham  Town," 


282 

rejoicing.  Doubtless  it  is  a  survival  of  some  forgotten  custom  current 
in  the  early  days  of  Christianity,  when  pilgrimages  were  made  to 
holy-wells  and  other  sacred  places  on  Holy  Thursday.  There  is  a 
well  of  ancient  repute  in  Adclingham,  though  no  one  now  seems  to 
know  what  was  its  original  purpose  or  virtues,  save  as  a  medicament 
for  sore  eyes.  It  used  to  be  known  as  Storr  Hill  Well,  and  is  in 
Stockinger  Lane,  a  name  with  a  true  Norse  ring  about  it,  winding 
moreover  in  true  Norse  fashion  out  of  the  Main  Street  up  to  the  moor 
side.  In  1814  there  are  the  usual  entries  for  killing  foxes,  and  also 
of  payments  of  55.  for  singers,  and  6s.  for  ringers,  as  well  as  28.  6d. 
"for  singers  God's  Penny,"  and  in  1825  3*.  is  paid  for  " Ringers  God's 
Penny,"  and  55.  "for  singing  girls."  This  so-called  "God's  Penny" 
was  merely  a  deposit  on  account,  a  kind  of  sacred  vow  or  obligation 
made  when  the  bargain  was  completed. 

Years  ago  I  was  once  talking  in  the  Main  Street  with  a 
patriarchal  native  on  old  times  in  the  village,  but  he  cared  little  for 
old-world  life  and  did  not  seem  to  be  very  proud  of  the  position  of 
Addingham  among  Yorkshire  villages:  it  lacked  "betterment"  and 
"progress,"  he  thought,  and  then  ejaculated  "it's  hed  time  eniff  to 
get  on;  aw've  heeard  mi  father  tell  'at  Addingham  wor  one  o't  varry 
first  places  'at  God  created.  Aw  sud  say  'at  fahndations  of  some  o't 
haases  are  as  owd  as  Adam,  an'  some  on  'em  leuk  as  if  they'd 
tum'led  fra'  t'hill  sides  into  all  sooarts  o'  shaps  an'  sitiwations. 
There's  noan  two  alike,  an'  when  yo'  want  to  finnd  a  body's  front  door 
yo're  sewer  to  get  to  somebody  else's  back-door  asteead."  The  village 
certainly  does  not  appear  to  have  derived  that  advantage  from  the 
railway  with  a  station  here,  which  the  iron-road  usually  brings. 
Thousands  of  strangers  visit  this  part  of  Wharfedale  every  season, 
but  they  usually  drive  or  rail  through  between  Ilkley  (3  m.)  and 
Bolton  Abbey  (2  m.)  Comparatively  few  find  it  worth  while  to  stay 
here.  Yet  the  district  teems  with  interest;  much  of  it,  however, 
belonging  to  the  past.  The  older  houses  are  mostly  eighteenth 
century  erections,  though  here  and  there  one  of  earlier  date  crops  up 
in  the  nooks  and  corners  of  the  long  Main  Street.  One  of  these  bears 
the  initials  and  date  W.H.,  1730,  and  has  a  characteristic  carved 
door-head,  shewing  the  evolution  of  the  preceding  Jacobean  style. 
Another,  dated  1748,  is  of  a  similar  but  less  pretentious  character. 
In  Parkinson's  Fold,  near  the  church,  is  a  dwelling-house  inscribed 
I.M.D.  1677,  which  has  a  characteristic  door-head  and  chamfered 
jambs.  The  oldest  existing  building  bears  the  date  1666  over  the 
door,  and  a  whole  volume  might  be  written  about  this  venerable 
little  historic  block.  For  a  long,  long  time  it  was  the  Parish  School, 
and  many  a  native  of  Addingham  owes  his  start  in  life  to  the 
inspiration  he  received  beneath  its  humble  roof.  I  cannot  enter  into 
a  full  history  of  the  old  building,  which  goes  back  to  the  date  of  its 
erection.  I  believe  Mr.  Lee  was  the  last  teacher  in  charge  of  it,  he 


283 

being  removed  to  the  new  church  schools  at  the  bottom  of  the  village, 
sometime  aliout  iS.|.|.  'J'he  rector  for  the  time  being  appears  to 
have  been  sole  manager,  and  it  seems  wrongfully  claimed  it  as  church 
property.  Mr.  Richard  Sandham,  who  had  charge  of  the  Church 
School  from  January  ist,  1X55,  to  Dei  ember  ;}ist,  1890,  tells  me  that 
under  the  school-room  was  the  village  prison,  and  an  infant  class-room. 
The  upper  room  was  occupied  by  a  joiner,  Edward  Lister,  and  the 
lower  by  a  nail  maker  and  barber.  Fifty  or  sixty  years  ago  (ieorge 
Whitaker  was  the  village  barber,  and  the  little  lather-shop  was  a 
well-known  rendezvous  of  local  gossips.  I  could  tell  many  a  tale  of 
the  bristly-bearded  hermit  from  Rumbalds  Moor  coming  in  for  a 
shave!  Whitaker  used  to  say,  "Job,  lad,  I  shall  hev  to  chairge  thee 
a  shillin',  thou  breks  up  t'best  scrapers  I  hev."  But  this  must  have 
been  in  Job's  courting  days;  for  the  last  years  of  his  life  his  face 
bristled  like  the  fretful  porcupine.  The  old  building  is  now  let  in  three 
tenancies,  the  Parish  Council  having  the  upper  room,  the  Conservative 
Club,  the  lower,  and  a  tradesman  occupies  the  one  adjoining.  The 
tenancies  yield  an  annual  income  of  about  £21,  half  of  which  goes 
to  the  Church  School  and  the  other  half  to  the  Wesleyan  School. 

Something  might  be  said  of  other  old  buildings,  notably  of  the 
so-called  Manor  House.  The  house  occupied  by  Dr,  Bates  now 
claims  the  name,  but  Mr.  Thomas  Whitaker,  the  aged  poet  of 
Addingham,  tells  me  that  another  old  house,  situated  near  what  is 
called  the  Cross,  has  an  equal  right  to  the  distinction,  as  the  house 
possesses  an  ancient  importance,  though  now  lost.  But  as  the  lords 
of  the  manor  have  always  been  non-resident,  there  does  not  appear  to 
be  any  just  claim  to  the  title  of  Manor  House  in  the  historical  sense  of 
the  term.  Another  hardly-remembered  homestead  was  Dockan  Hall, 
which  stood  nearly  opposite  Dobson's  restaurant,  and  the  house  dated 
1826  is  on  its  site.  Close  beside  it  was  the  pinfold,  above  mentioned. 

Among  the  more  recent  mansions  is  Farfield  Hall  situated  in  an 
ample  park,  about  a  mile  from  the  town.  It  was  built  from  a  design 
made  by  Richard,  Earl  of  Burlington,  who  died  in  1753  and  to  whom 
Pope,  the  poet,  refers  in  the  line, — 

Who  plants  like  Bathurst,  or  who  builds  like  Boyle? 

Eor  many  generations  the  old  house  has  been  the  home  of  the 
Cunliffe  Lister  family,  whose  lineage  is  set  forth  in  various  works. 
Mr.  Samuel  Cunliffe  Lister  (now  Lord  Masham),  whose  life-size  statue 
erected  by  public  subscription  in  1875,  stands  near  the  principal 
entrance  to  Manningham  Park,  resided  here  at  a  former  period  of 
his  life.*  High  House  is  the  residence  of  Mr.  John  Coates,  nephew 

*  Farlirld  is  also  memorable  as  the  birthplace  of  William  Lang-ton,  who  died  at 
[ngatestone,  Kssex,  in  1881,  aged  78.  He  was  an  eminent  antiquary,  herald  and 
genealogist,  and  took  a  principal  part  along  with  Richard  Cobden  and  James  Heywood 
F.R.S.,  in  the  foundation  of  the  Manchester  Athena-urn  in  1836.  A  sum  of  .£5000  was 
raised  in  his  honour  and  a  memorial  Lang-ton  fellowship  founded  at  Owen's  College. 


284 

of  the  late  rector  of  Addingham,  and  County  Councillor  for  the  Sheriff 
Hutton  division.  Hallcroft  Hall  was  erected  in  the  early  part  of  the 
century,  and  is  the  residence  of  Mr.  John  G.  Oddy,  J.P. 

The  Society  of  Friends  and  Wesleyans  are  the  two  oldest 
Nonconformist  bodies  in  Addingham,  the  former  dating  from  the 
time  of  George  Fox,  the  founder  of  the  sect,  and  the  latter  from  about 
the  year  1770.  Under  the  Toleration  Act  the  Friends  obtained  a 
license  to  hold  meetings  in  1689.  The  first  Wesleyan  chapel  was 
built  in  1778.  Many  good  and  able  men  have  worked  in  the  cause 
of  local  Methodism,  while  many  a  true-hearted  native  has  gone  forth 
from  the  old  Wharfedale  village,  doing  God's  mission  in  other  and 
distant  lands.  I  cannot  mention  all,  but  one  worthy  who  has  departed 
this  life  on  a  distant  shore  was  the  Rev.  H.  F.  Bland,  a  native  of 
Addingham,  who  died  recently  at  Smith's  Falls,  Ontario.  A  more 
thorough  and  earnest  worker  never  entered  the  ministry ;  his  whole 
life  being  one  continual  self-sacrifice  for  the  benefit  of  others.  He 
won  the  greatest  respect  not  only  of  his  own  people  but  also  of  his 
clerical  brethren,  and  besides  discharging  many  and  various  duties 
he  was  for  three  years  chairman  of  the  Canadian  Conference. 

I  have  mentioned  that  cloth-fulling  was  carried  on  at  Addingham 

more  than  five  centuries  ago,  and  a  long  chapter  might  be  written  on 

the   old   trades   of  the   place.      Fulling,    milling,   tanning,    currying, 

tallow-chandling,  and  the  cotton  and  worsted  trades  have  all  formed 

active    industries    in    the    town    and    neighbourhood.      The    second 

worsted  mill  in  England,  I  am  told,  was  built  here  by  the  late  Mr. 

John  Cunliffe.      But  in  the  early  part  of  the  century  the  trade  was 

almost  wholly  cotton  spinning  and  weaving  and  about  1830-2,  there 

were  two  mills  employing  nearly  300  persons  here  in  this  industry. 

Before   that  time   nearly   every   cottage   had    its   loom,    and    in   the 

summer  time  as  you  walked  down  the  principal  street  every   door 

or    window    was    sure    to    be    open,    and    the    continued    click-click 

of    the    busy    shuttle    sounded    merrily    on    the    still    air.       During 

that   never-to-be-forgotten   period   of  the   power-loom   riots   in    1826, 

Addingham  was  the  scene  of  much  disorder.     Honest  folk  had  got 

the  notion  into  their  heads  that  power-looms  were  to  be  the  ruin  of 

themselves  and  their  families,  and  so  they  gathered  in  hundreds,  and 

went  in  large  bodies  from  place  to  place  for  the  purpose  of  destroying 

the  looms.      A   goodly  number  of  the  new  invention  had  been  set 

up  in  one  of  the  Addingham  factories,  and  the  mob  lost  no  time 

in   hurrying   to   the   spot.      The   greatest    alarm   prevailed,   and   the 

Addingham   householders   were   at  a  loss   to   know  how  to  defend 

themselves  and  their  homes.      A  meeting  was  hurriedly  called,  and 

it  was  resolved  to  close  and  barricade  every  door,  while  most  of  the 

able-bodied  men  were  to  assemble  in  the  threatened  mill  and  defend 

it  and  its  contents  to  the  best  of  their  ability.      Many  of  the  women 

in  their  terror  took  lumps  of  pottery-mould  and  chalk,  I  am  told,  and 


2*5 

\\rote  on  tin;  outside  shutters,  "This  house  to  let,"  and  the  mob  on 
serin-  these  lictititious  notices  supposed  the  town  to  be  deserted  and 
so  made  haste  to  attack  the  mill.  But  I  had  better  let  Mr.  Henry 
Whitaker,  tell  the  story,  as  he  and  his  father  were  eye-witnesses  of 
most  of  the  events  of  this  stormy  time.  It  was  in  May,  1826, 
he  says  — 

M\  laiher  and  my  uncle  Henry  Whitaker,  from  Liverpool  (wlm  was  staying"  at  my 
native  place,  Greenholme,  near  (Kiev),  called  at  Mr.  Christopher  Kemplay's,  St.  John's 
Place,  Leeds,  where  I  was  at  school,  and  took  me  with  them  to  my  aunt  Clarke's  at 
kothwell  Haigh  to  stay  all  night,  and  told  Mr.  Kemplay  that  they  would  bring  me 
hack  the  following-  day. 

We  had  had  .supper,  and  were  sal  round  the  lire  in  tin:  dining--room  (this  was 
about  hall-past  ten  o'clock)  when  the  door  was  suddenly  opened  by  old  James  Cowgill, 
who  acted  the  part  ot  footman,  who  hurriedly  exclaimed,  "  Please,  ma'am,  here's  one 
of  the  dragoons  has  galloped  up  with  this,"  and  he  presenied  a  letter  to  my  aunt,  who 
handed  il  over  to  my  father,  as  it  was  addressed  to  him.  He  quickly  opened  it. 

It  proved  to  be  a  letter  from  our  bookkeeper,  Mr.  Brown,  dated  from  the 
Barracks,  Leeds,  stating  that  Mr.  Jeremiah  Horsfall,  of  Farficid,  had  sent  word  that 
the  power-loom  rioters  had  g-ot  to  Skipton,  and  then  they  were  going  forward  to  break 
his  power-looms  in  his  mill  at  Addingham,  and  afterwards  would  proceed  to  demolish 
those  at  Grccnholme  mills.  So  Mr.  Brown  had  ridden  over  to  Leeds  to  procure  the 
military,  and  a  troop  of  the  JIH!  Dragoons  had  just  started  off  for  Greenholme,  and  the 
Colonel  thought  it  right  that  a  letter  should  be  sent  to  my  father,  so  had  kindly  ordered 
one  of  the  dragoons  to  trot  up  with  it.  Was  there  not  consternation  and  alarm!  —  My 
aunt  was  terribly  afraid.  The  horse  was  put  to  the  g-ig-,  and  my  father  and  my  uncle 
started  back  for  Greenholme. 

( >f  course  neither  I  nor  my  aunt  could  sleep,  for  she  had  the  impression  that  her 
brothers  might  be  murdered,  and  I  anxiously  waited  to  know  the  result. 

It  appeared,  after  the  mills  at  Skipton  were  attacked,  the  mob  moved  on  to 
Addingham,  where  the  workpeople  had  made  much  preparation  to  resist  them.  A 
quantity  of  larg-e  stones  were  taken  up  to  the  hig-her  stories  of  the  mill  to  pitch  down 
on  the  heads  of  the  assailants  should  they  attempt  to  force  an  entrance.  Firearms 
were  procured,  and  every  means  taken  to  resist  the  attack,  which  took  place  in  the 
afternoon,  when  windows  were  broken  and  shots  fired.  One  man  was  shot  through 
the  fleshy  part  of  the  neck,  and  another,  who  was  trying  to  effect  an  entrance  by 
creeping  along  a  ledge  of  the  building,  slipped  and  fell  into  the  open  tank  from  the 
privies,  his  being  the  only  life  that  was  lost,  as  he  was  smothered. 

The  mob  were  beaten  off,  and  no  doubt  learning  that  the  military  would  be  at 
Greenholme,  they  did  not  go  there,  but  into  Airedale,  where  various  Bradford  mills 
were  stopped.  That  of  Messrs.  T.  G.  Horsfall  and  Co.  was  attacked,  and  there  one  of 
the  rioters  wa>  shot  dead.  The  Riot  Act  had  to  be  read  in  various  parts  of  the  country, 
which  was  in  a  very  unsettled  state  for  some  time. 

The  Yorkshire  Hussars  were  called  out,  and  billeted  in  different  places.  The  Hon. 
Henry  Lascelles  (the  late  Lord  Harewood,  who  was  afterwards  killed  in  the  hunting 
field,  his  skull  being  fractured  in  consequence  of  his  horse  falling,  its  foot  having  got 
entangled  in  a  sheep  net  over  which  it  was  jumping)  was  Captain  of  the  Harewood  and 
Otley  troops,  which  were  stationed  at  Greenholme,  and  remained  there  about  six 
weeks.  The  place  was  put  under  military  rule,  guard  mounted  every  night,  and  a 
picket  patrolled  Leather  Bank  Lane  and  occasionally  on  the  Ilkley  Road.  The  low 
buildings  at  the  end  of  the  old  mill  were  converted  into  barracks,  and  many  of  the 
horses  were  stabled  there.  The  officers  lived  and  slept  at  Greenholme  and  considered 
that  they  had  got  into  very  comfortable  quarters.  Captain  Lascelles  was  most  affable 
and  kind,  and  beloved  by  all  who  knew  him.  In  his  previous  military  service  he  was 
at  the  battle  of  Waterloo.  He  gave  to  my  eldest  brother  "John"  a  dagger  or  dirk, 
which  he  picked  up  in  the  field  after  the  battle  was  over. 


286 

The  place  for  some  time  was  kept'  under  proper  military  guard, 
and  at  Burley  every  precaution  was  likewise  taken.  On  the  left  of 
the  bridge  crossing  the  goit  that  went  down  to  the  old  mill,  a  sentry 
was  posted  every  night;  no  one  being  allowed  to  go  by  without 
uttering  the  pass-word,  which  was  changed  every  day.  The  road 
by  the  mills  to  Burley  was  also  closed,  no  stranger  being  allowed 
to  pass,  and  the  gate  at  the  Iron  Row  was  locked,  and  all  put  under 
strict  military  rule. 

One  might  go  on  recounting  stories  of  these  old  times,  of  many 
other  strange  affairs  and  of  old  Addingharh  "  characters,"  witches, 
and  wise  men,  of  noted  hunters,  racers,  poachers,  and  "  eccentrics." 
But  this  chapter  must  stop. 


CHAPTER    XXI. 


ON    THK    EARLY    HISTORY   OF    BOLTON. 

Prehistoric  evidences  Bnlton,  a  possession  of  tin-  Karls  ot  Mcrcia  Conjectural  royal 
residence  al  Bolton  in  Saxon  times  Domesday  inquest  Superior  importance  of 
Snavi;ill  £r.  to  Skipton  Importance  ot  Kmosay  and  Ilalton-  Probable  centres  ot 
Celtic  missionary  work  (Jrant  lo  Komille  aiul  the  building  ot  Skipton  Castle. 

O  the  importance  of  Bolton  before  the  Norman  conquest 
the  official  record  of  A  D.  1086  bears  ample  testimony. 
Some  extensive  clearances  must  have  been  made  on 
the  Anglian  settlement  as  it  became  the  capital  of  an 
extensive  manor  and  parish  known  to  this  day  as  the 
Saxon  Cure.  Before  that  time  the  native  Britons  had,  as  usual, 
camped  on  the  hill  slopes  and  even  summits  of  the  surrounding  moors, 
as  the  valley  at  this  time  was  a  vast  and  intricate  forest,  the  lurking 
place  of  many  dangerous  beasts  of  prey.  Few  traces  of  the  ancient 
British  inhabitants  survive  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  Bolton. 
I  have  examined  the  local  field-maps,  and  with  the  exception  of 
Brown  Hill  and  Black  Hill,  already  explained,  and  perhaps  Can  Hill, 
original  Celtic  place-names  have  been  totally  forgotten.  This  Can 
Hill  may  be  like  Pen  Hill  and  Pendle,  a  duplication  of  alien  tongues, 
equivalent  to  the  Cym. -Celt,  pen,  Goidelic  fan,  a  hill  summit.  Kinnel, 
near  Abercorn,  for  example,  Bede  tells  us  was  called  Penfahel  by  the 
ancient  Picts,  and  Kinnel  is  the  Gaelic  Celtic  equivalent,  the  Celts 
using  a  k  or  hard  c,  where  the  Cymric  Britons  used  a  /  or  b. 
Ceanmore  or  Kenmore  being  the  same  word  as  Benmore,  the  great 
head.  Can  Hill,  rising  above  the  road  to  Ilkley,  may  have  a  like 
meaning.* 

This  absorption  of  the  Celtic  element  on  the  Anglian  conquest, 
shews  how  thoroughly  Anglian  the  district  was,  and  how  feeble  and 
evanescent  the  Celtic  overlap.  We  must  go  to  outlying  places  in  the 
parish  for  the  little  we  know  of  the  prehistoric  races  of  Bolton. 
There  are  traces  of  ancient  housesteads  in  the  Stank  Pasture,  and 
formerly  there  existed  evidences  of  cromlech-burials,  but  not  a  trace 
of  these  is  now  to  be  found.  The  tombs  consisted  of  two  upright 
stones  with  another  laid  horizontally  upon  them,  and  one  of  these, 
on  the  edge  of  the  moor  between  Barden  and  Embsay,  was  opened 
in  the  early  part  of  this  century.  In  it  was  found  a  bronze  tore  of 
the  kind  described  by  Mr.  Birch  as  the  beaded  tore,  formed  in  two 
portions,  one  part  representing  the  string,  being  slightly  elastic  and 

*  See  Bishop  Browne's  Conversion  of  the  Heptarchy,  p.  137. 


adjusted  to  the  beaded  portion  by  means  of  pins  or  tenons  fitting 
into  corresponding  sockets,  so  as  to  enable  the  wearer  readily  to 
remove  it  from  his  neck.  It  is  ornamented  with  twelve  knobs  chased 
with  zig-zag  lines,  and  apparently  formed  in  imitation  of  the  vitrified 
beads  ornamented  with  undulating  lines  frequently  found  in  British 
tumuli.  A  few  barrows  also  lie  scattered  about  the  hill-sides,  some 
doubtless  obliterated,  while  a  few  others  have  apparently  not  been 
disturbed.  One  of  these  Mr.  Thos.  Roose,  the  interesting  gardener 
at  Bolton  Abbey,  opened  in  October,  1894.  He  tells  me  the  mound, 
which  is  situated  at  High  Hare  Head  (975  ft.)  between  Halton  and 
the  low  reservoir,  yielded  an  urn  containing  burnt  bones  with  charcoal, 
and  a  small  quartz  pebble.  While  excavating  a  hammer-stone  of 
chert  was  also  found.  The  urn  was  about  ten  inches  in  height  and 
rudely  ornamented  around  its  upper  surface  with  zig-zag  lines. 
Another  barrow,  apparently  never  examined,  lies  about  100  yards  to 
the  north  of  the  one  described.  All  these  are  late  Celtic. 

The  compotus  of  Bolton  Abbey  tells  us  that  despite  the  Anglian 
conquest  and  subsequent  destruction  of  the  larger  beasts  of  prey,  wolves 
were  still  numerous  in  the  Abbey  woods  as  late  as  the  i3th  century 
and  the  Bolton  Abbey  accounts  shew  that  rewards  were  given  for 
wolf-slaying  in  1306.  Truly  it  must  have  been  a  "howling  wilderness" 
in  the  days  of  the  Saxon  huntsmen,  and  when  Edgar,  King  of  Mercia 
and  Northumbria,  lorded  this  wild  domain  (A.D.  975)  he  exacted  a 
yearly  tribute  of  300  heads  of  wolves  for  three  years  from  the  Brit- 
Welsh  King  Idwal.  Bolton  then  formed  part  of  the  large  possessions 
of  the  Earls  of  Mercia,  and  before  1066  was  inherited  by  Edwin,  son 
of  Leofwine,  Earl  of  Mercia,  and  younger  brother  to  Leofric,  husband 
of  the  famous  Lady  Godiva.  This  nobleman  is  stated  by  Whitaker 
to  have  had  a  residence  at  Bolton,  which  after  the  completion  of  the 
Domesday  survey,  had  fallen  into  ruins.  The  name  Bodeltone 
together  with  the  testimony  of  Domesday  seems  to  justify  this 
assertion,  but  the  site  of  the  burgh,  or  botl  cannot  now  be  more  than 
conjectured.  The  manor  of  Bolton  was  however  but  a  fraction  of 
this  great  lord's  possessions  at  the  time  of  the  Norman  invasion.* 
Whether  he  was  ever  here  no  one  knows.  Whitaker  thinks  it  probable 
there  was  a  parish  church  here  too,  in  the  days  of  the  same  Earl 
Edwin.  Assuredly  the  existence  of  a  parish  premises  the  presence  of 
a  priest  and  a  church,  wherever  that  church  may  have  been.  But 
there  is  neither  stone  nor  mortar  at  Bolton  Abbey  than  can  be  proved 
to  be  of  older  date  than  the  original  foundation  of  the  Priory  in 
1154-5.  It  is  often  stated  that  the  Priory  was  grafted  on  a  pre-existing 
parish  church.  Probably  there  would  be  a  chapel  attached  to  the 
Saxon  manse,  but  in  a  district  so  heavily  timbered,  doubtless  it  was 
of  wood.  On  this  subject  I  will  speak  in  the  next  chapter. 

*  See  the  author's  Richmondshire,  pp.  40-45. 


289 

I. rt  inr  now  turn  to  tin;  Donu^day  record  of  \.n.   10X0. 

M. \\IIK.      In  Uodeltone  (Holton)  Karl  Kclimin  had  six  caru<  al.--  of  land  tor  j,'«-ld. 

/;,  i,  .v/<  k.\.     In  AliiMH-  ( I  l.ilimi  Ka-t)  six  farm-ait-..     In  Embesie (Embsay)  three carucates 

inland  and  ttin-r  fariifatcs  yoke.  In  1  )rai-  lone  ( I  )rani;ht<  in )  thre  •  earueate-  ;  Sfiprdi-n 
(Skibeden)  three  carurati^ ;  Sfiploni-  (Skiplon)  tour  fanieates;  Snaehehale  (Snayj,rill) 
six  eariifates  ;  Tin  edderebv  (Thorlby)  tt-n  earueates. 

.\,ik,\  Hedmesleia  (Heamsley)  two  fanieates;  I  lolnic  (  I  lolnir)  thrrc  canicatesj  <  Jcrr^raiii- 
((lari^rave),  three  fanifates  ;  Staintonr  (Stainton)  three  earueates ;  ( )ding-i-hrm 
(Addinj^ham)  two  earuraU-s;  Otreburne  ((  Mterburn)  three  carucates;  Scotorp  (ScOSthrop) 
three  rarueate-;  Malgim  (Malliam)  three  farm-ate^;  Conej|hestone  (Cold  Collision) 
three  carucales  ;  Helj;cteld  ( I  lellilield)  three  farneates  ;  Anleie)  (Anley)  two  earueatev  ; 
llan^elil  (ilanlilli)  three  carucates. 

Together  there  were  41  carucates,  or  with  the  enfranchised  vills 
or  outlying  places  which  owed  suit  of  court  to  Bolton,  there  were  77 
carucates.  As  the  number  of  ploughs  is  not  given  it  may  be  assumed 
they  were  worked  on  both  the  two-field  and  three-field  shift,  so  that 
we  may  safely  strike  an  average  of  170  acres  to  the  carucate  and 
thus  come  at  the  grand  total  of  13,090  acres  under  cultivation  within 
the  lordship  of  Bolton  in  1066.  Of  this  arable  area  from  one-third  to 
one-half  annually  lay  in  fallow.  The  extent  of  woodland  is  not 
stated  ,  it  was  not  taxed.  Within  twenty  years  distress  had  become 
so  acute  it  was  useless  levying  taxes.  Perhaps  there  was  hardly  an 
inhabitant  left  to  tell  the  tale  of  famine  and  slaughter,  so  trenchant 
were  the  Norman  ravages,  for  the  melancholy  record  of  1086  is  that 
these  extensive  and  prosperous  domains  are  "  all  waste." 

From  this  picture  of  local  aspects  in  1066-86,  some  useful 
inferences  may  be  drawn  of  the  large  share  of  prosperity  enjoyed  by 
the  then  important  centres  of  population,  but  which  have  now 
degenerated  to  mere  hamlets  or  even  single  farms.  Such,  for  example, 
are  Snaygill,  Thorlby  and  Anley,  while  Skipton,  which  became  the 
head  of  the  barony  shortly  after  the  Conquest,  was  a  mere  collection 
of  shepherds'  huts,  and  possessed  not  half  the  rateable  value  or 
importance  of  Thorlby.  Embsay  and  Halton  were  also  conspicuously 
populous  places,  and  both  had  notable  religious  associations.  All  the 
Haltons  within  the  old  kingdom  of  Strathclyde  appear  to  have  been 
places  of  early  religious  consequence,  and  are  mentioned  in  Domesday. 
In  all  probability  they  were  the  chosen  centres  of  the  Celtic  missionary 
work  of  St.  Hilda  and  St.  Heiv  in  the  7th  century ;  sometimes  we 
find  them  written  Heldetune,  that  is  Hilda's  town,  or  as  in  the  case  of 
our  Bolton  Halton,  Altone,  perhaps  from  the  A.S.  alter-ton,  that  is 
altar-town.  At  Halton,  near  Lancaster,  are  some  notable  early 
crosses. 

The  whole  of  the  possessions  above  named  constituted  the 
Saxon  fee*  of  Earl  Edwin  in  these  parts,  and  when  the  Conqueror 

*  In  British  times  the  cow  was  the  standard  of  value,  and  three  cows  were  equivalent 
to  one  female  slave.  The  Anglo-Saxons  also  used  the  word  feoh,  cattle,  in  a  similar 
manner,  to  indicate  property  or  wealth,  hence  our  word  fee. 


290 

granted  the  same  to  his  Norman  follower,  Robert  de  Romille,  the 
latter  chose  Skipton  as  the  centre  and  head  of  his  barony,  and  there 
commenced  the  stone  castle,  which  afterwards  enlarged,  still  looks 
over  the  old  Norman  capital.  Bolton  henceforward  became  part  of 
the  great  honour  and  fee  of  Skipton,  and  so  continued  until  the 
dissolution  of  the  Priory  in  1539.  In  1542  the  estate  was  sold  to 
Henry,  Earl  of  Cumberland,  and  Bolton  became  a  chapelry  attached 
to  Skipton  Parish  Church.  The  parish  included  the  townships  of 
Bolton  Abbey,  Barden,  Hazlewood-with-Storiths,  Beamsley-in-Skipton, 
Halton,  and  a  part  of  Draughton.  In  length  it  is  about  nine  miles, 
and  its  greatest  width  is  about  seven  miles,  extending  from  Black 
Hill  (the  old  Celtic  boundary  I  have  mentioned)  on  the  east,  and 
Crag  House  on  the  west.  As  I  have  said  the  existing  evidences  of 
the  British  occupation  of  Bolton  are  extremely  meagre,  nor  are  we 
warranted  in  pressing  the  matter  of  place-names.  In  a  name  like 
Cat  Gill,  some  may  fancy  they  see  the  Celtic  cat/i,  a  fort,  but  I 
have  elsewhere  pointed  out  that  payments  were  formerly  made  in 
Wharfedale  for  the  capture  and  slaughter  of  wild  cats,  a  dangerous 
and  crafty  creature  quite  as  much  to  be  dreaded  as  the  wolf,  with 
which  animal  this  district  was  also  much  infested.  I  have  met  with 
no  particularly  early  mention  of  Cat  Gill,  but  in  an  indenture  at 
Bolton  Hall,  dated  1610,  I  find  the  place  written  as  now  "Catgill", 
the  mansion  and  land  being  then  in  the  tenure  of  one  John  Robinson. 
The  true  wild  cat  still  exists  in  a  few  of  the  most  retired  glens  of 
Scotland,  but  the  last  authentic  records  of  the  capture  of  any  in 
England  are  near  Loweswater  in  1843  ar>d  i»  Northumberland 
in  1853. 

I  have  only  to  add  in  conclusion  that  by  an  Order  in  Council 
made  in  1864  the  old  chapelry  of  Bolton  was  erected  into  a  separate 
parish  and  Bolton  Abbey  was  constituted  the  rectory  that  now  exists. 


ON   THE   WHARFE 


CIIAITKK     XXII. 


KM  USA  v    "\VAKE"'    AND    THE    FOUNDATION    OK    BOLTON    PRIORY. 

Keautilul  -•, -cilery  Motives  tor  site  of  the  Priory  Ancient  religious  associations  at 
Kmbsay  St.  Cuthbert's  "  \\'akc  "  The  Celtic  Church  in  N'orthumbria  The 
painting' of  St.  Cuthbert  at  Bolton  Priory  -The  great  Fair  at  Kmbsay  Remains  <  it' 
the  Priory  at  Kmbsay  -Citation  of  grant  of  the  manor  of  Button  Legend  of  the 
Strid  -The  grange  of  Stead  Specie  Heck  and  the  name  Speight  -Citations  from 
unpublished  charters. 
| 

N  the  lovely  Spring-time  when  the  earth  mirrors  the 
heavens  and  the  wild  woodlands  are  aglow  with 
countless  hyacinths,  sprinkled  maybe  with  golden- 
rayed  celandines,  shining  like  stars  in  the  firmament  of 
blue,  when  sweet  primroses  and  violets,  orchids  and 
speedwell  gem  forest  and  meadow,  and  birds  of  many  hues  are 
joyous  with  song,  no  spot  in  our  islands,  famed  as  they  are  for  their 
great  scenic  beauty,  can  eclipse  the  few  miles  of  country  which  lie 
around  the  storied  old  Priory  beside  Father  Wharfe.  Indeed,  no 
parish  in  England  possesses  a  more,,  enchanting  variety  of  woodland 
landscape,  everywhere  environed  by  delightful  "peeps'"  of  rock  and 
crag,  or  long  waving  lines  of  green  and  purple  fell.  Nowhere  have 
the  charms  of  Nature  been  better  or  more  jealously  looked  after — 
thanks  to  the  noble  owners — and  appreciated  as  they  are  now,  (and 
even  too  long  ago  in  the  old  monastic  days),  they  remain  a  perpetual 
feast  to  the  eye  and  mind,  ever  invoking  that  holy  psalm  of  praise, 
so  often  proclaimed  from  human  heart-depths  in  yonder  noble  choir, — 
"O,  all  ye  works  of  the  Lord,  bless  ye  the  Lord,  praise  Him  and 
magnify  Him  for  ever/' 

The  old  monks  were  men  of  learning  and  taste,  and  when  living 
at  Embsay,  a  few  miles  away,  they  must  often  have  looked  upon  this 
beautiful  site  by  the  crystal  Wharfe,  as  one  well  suited  for  a 
permanent  home.  There  was  here  not  only  the  sacred  seclusion  of 
God's  offering,  but  there  were  warm  riparian  lands  which  had  long 
lain  fallow,  admirably  suited  for  the  growth  of  corn,  as  well  as  almost 
interminable  woods,  yielding  an  abundance  of  game,  while  the  river 
close  by  provided  a  convenient  supply  of  fresh-water  (ish.  The 
situation,  indeed,  was  all  that  could  be  desired,  being  sheltered  from 
the  east  and  north,  and  yet  sufficiently  open  to  admit  of  plenty  of 
air  and  sunlight,  while  the  mixed  sand  and  gravel  soil  was  warm  and 
dry,  and  elevated  above  the  reach  of  floods. 

But  like  all  such  institutions  founded  in  a  credulous  era,  in  order 
to  exact  tribute  from  the  wealth}-,  while  spreading  undoubted  benefits 
among  the  people,  there  must  be  some  extraordinary  motive  for  the 


292 

existence  of  Bolton  Priory.  The  old  tradition  as  first  recorded  by 
Dodsworth,  ca  1620,  is  that  the  "Boy  of  Egremond"  was  drowned  at 
the  Strid  before  the  translation  of  the  Priory  from  Embsay,  and  that 
the  grief  caused  by  the  loss  of  her  only  son  induced  the  Lady  Adeliza 
to  erect  and  dedicate  this  holy  fane  to  God's  service  as  a  contrite 
memorial  of  her  only  son's  untimely  end.  But  the  under-cited 
original  charter  of  the  pious  grantor  bears  the  signature  of  "William 
my  son  of  Egremond,"  so  that  whatever  may  have  been  the  subsequent 
fate  of  this  honored  youth,  we  are  at  any  rate  sure  that  he  was  a  living 
witness  to  the  charter  of  translation. 

One  may  express  surprise  that  this  site  was  not  originally  fixed 
upon,  instead  of  the  bleaker  one  beneath  Embsay  Crag.  But  there 
was,  I  think,  a  motive  for  the  first  selection,  inasmuch  as  there  were 
traditions  of  longstanding  about  the  Embsay  site,  which  even  the 
Norman  subversion  would  not  willingly  let  die.  If  there  had  been  an 
already  existing  church  at  Bolton,  why  not  have  grafted  the  monastery 
on  that  foundation,  as  appears  to  have  been  the  case  at  Embsay? 
But  no  such  church  at  Bolton  then  existed,  which  if  once  attached  to 
the  manse  of  Earl  Edwin,  must  have  been  suffered  to  fall  into  disuse 
on  Romille  building  the  castle  and  founding  the  church  at  Skipton  ca. 
1 100,  which  henceforward  became  the  church  of  the  parish.  The 
small  tithes  of  Embsay*  as  well  as  all  altar-dues  arising  from  the 
churches  at  Embsay  and  Bolton  were  subsequently  reserved  to  it, 
facts  in  themselves  sufficiently  attesting  the  importance  of  Embsay 
as  an  anterior  foundation.  As  the  Priory  at  Embsay  was  not 
established  until  1121,  or  after  the  church  of  Skipton  was  built,  which 
formed  part  of  the  original  endowment  of  the  Priory,  the  canons 
naturally  sought  some  place  having  notable  sacred  associations.  I 
have  already  made  it  apparent  that  neither  Bolton  nor  Skipton 
possessed  such,  so  that  some  motive,  other  than  that  of  the  mere 
land-gift,  must  have  actuated  them  in  their  choice  of  Embsay,  which 
henceforward  continued  a  privileged  place  with  right  of  sanctuary  to 
all  fugitives. 

Here,  too,  there  seems  little  reason  to  doubt,  the  vigil  of  St. 
Cuthbert  had  long  been,  and  continued  for  centuries  to  be  a  great 
religious  festival,  inasmuch  as  we  are  told  his  influence  had  been  so 
marvellous  in  Northumbria  that  miracles  which  he  had  wrought  in  his 
life-time  did  not  cease  even  after  his  death  and  burial  in  686.  I  have 
already  said  sufficient  about  the  Celtic  church  in  this  part  of  Yorkshire, 
and  I  need  only  add  my  conviction  that  a  Celtic  monastery  of  monks 
and  nuns,  subject  to  an  abbess,  as  was  customary,  existed  at  Embsay, 

*  The  tithe  of  calves  from  Embsay,  fixed  at  an  annual  payment  of  £i,  is  now  paid 
to  the  Rector  of  Bolton  Abbey.  Calves  were  not  paid  in  kind,  but  by  immemorial 
custom  eight  groats  was  the  modus  for  a  calf,  due  on  six  or  more  calves  calved  in  one 
year;  the  parson  allowing  out  of  the  said  eight  groats,  three-half-pence  a-piece  on  as 
many  calves  as  fall  short  of  ten. 


293 

an«l  which  in  all  probability  was  destroyed  in  the  Viking  irruption 
under  Hubba  in  867.  Simeon  of  Durham  tells  us  that  their  sites  were 
held  sacred,  though  no  monasteries  were  re-founded  for  fully  two 
centuries  afterwards,  when  the  Normans  introduced  the  foreign  orders 
of  monks.  But  the  word  monk  as  Simeon  tells  us,  was  never  heard  in 
the  north  country  before  William's  invasion,  whereas  nuns  were  known 
in  the  time  of  the  Britons,  and  their  ministrations  were  in  the  7th 
century  greatly  extended  in  Xorthumbria  by  the  Abbess  Heiv.  The 
tenacity  with  which  this  saint's  labours  in  our  district  is  witnessed,  I 
have  shewn  in  the  still  existing  name  of  St.  Ives,  Bingley,  and 
probably  all  our  Haltons  (in  Domesday  Heldetune]  are  simply  an 
evolution  of  the  name  of  the  Abbess  Hilda.  At  Embsay  no  tradition 
exists  of  a  nunnery,  though  the  name  of  Nun's  Well  still  clings  to  a 
site  near  the  vicarage. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  efficient  opposition  of  the  native  inhabitants 
to  "Rome  rule"  in  the  7th  and  8th  centuries.  How  long  their 
opposition  continued  here  we  have  no  means  of  ascertaining,  but  the 
evidence  shews  that  St.  Cuthbert  of  Lindisfarne,  the  successor  of 
the  Celtic  Aidan,  the  emissary  of  St.  Columba,  was  in  all  likelihood 
honored  here  as  above  remarked,  before  the  Normans  came.  He 
was  made  Bishop  in  685,  though  we  do  not  know  how  long  after 
this  time  a  church  or  cross  was  erected  to  his  memory  at  Embsay, 
but  Whitaker  (1805)  says  that  a  Saxon  doorway  belonging  to  a 
former  church  was  to  be  seen  at  Embsay  in  his  time.  Pope  Gregory 
in  601  had  ordered  vigils  or  "wakes"  to  be  kept  in  this  country  on 
the  anniversaries  of  the  holy  martyrs,  and  St.  Cuthbert's  wake  at 
Embsay  would  appear  to  have  been  one  of  the  great  festivals  in 
Craven  before  the  Castle  was  built  at  Skipton  or  the  Priory  erected 
on  the  Wharfe  at  Bolton.  Story  and  tradition  of  the  visits  and 
preaching  of  St.  Cuthbert  may  still  be  found  in  parts  of  Yorkshire 
and  Cumbria  that  are  now  but  little  known,  but  which,  at  the  time 
of  the  7th  century  revival  and  conversion  of  the  English,  were  great 
centres  of  missionary  light.  In  Carlisle  cathedral  the  traditions  of 
St.  Cuthbert's  labors  in  that  diocese  are  well  preserved  in  the 
magnificent  fresco  in  wood,  giving  illustrations  of  his  life,  &c. 
Indeed  so  venerated  was  the  old  Northumbrian  saint  in  our  district, 
that  a  portraiture  of  him  in  oils  was  constantly  kept  in  the  monastery 
at  Bolton.  The  Norman  monks,  sensible  of  the  value  of  holy 
traditions  may  well  have  chosen  St.  Cuthbert's  shrine  at  Embsay, 
with  its  probable  older  traditions,  as  the  site  of  their  Augustine 
Priory,  a  bare  and  lonely  spot  forsooth,  but  not  more  so  than  that 
of  the  old  and  similar  body  of  Augustine  Canons  on  the  wild  Swiss 
pass  of  St.  Bernard,  whom  we  know  as  the  "  Monks  of  St.  Bernard." 

Pope  Gregory  had  also  said  the  people  were  to  erect  booths 
and  stalls  in  the  vicinity  of  those  churches  which  were  formerly 
temples,  and  celebrate  the  occasion  with  becoming  festivity.  In 


294 

other  words  the  "wake"  was  to  be  a  fair,  attended  with  religious 
rejoicing.  When  the  "wake"  or  fair  at  Embsay  originated  no 
writing  can  tell  us,  but  the  monks  of  Bolton  continued  the  custom, 
as  they  upheld  the  church  at  Embsay  long  after  their  removal  to 
Bolton  in  1155.  From  an  unpublished  record  I  learn  that  in  the 
reign  of  Edward  I.  (1272-1307)  the  Prior  of  Bolton  was  summoned 
to  answer  by  what  warrant  he  claimed  to  have  a  fair  and  toll  in 
Emmeseye,  without  the  license  and  sanction  of  the  king  and  his 
progenitors.  And  the  Prior  replies  "  I  place  myself  upon  my 
country,"  by  this  immemorial  usage,  and  as  to  the  fair,  always 
held  on  the  vigil  and  morrow  of  St.  Cuthbert  in  September,  he 
contended  that  the/a/r  had  arisen  by  reason  of  "a  certain  gathering 
of  men  called  a  wach"  and  by  occasion  of  the  said  gathering  the 
aforesaid  Prior  and  his  predecessors  held  the  said  fair  at  Embsay 
without  warrant  and  took  toll  unjustly.  The  result  of  this  enquiry 
appears  to  have  led  to  the  necessary  authority  being  obtained,  for  in 
the  monk's  compotus  for  the  year  1305,  I  find  an  entry  of  the  heavy 
payment  of  -£4.  5*.  "  for  the  charter  of  the  Fair  at  Embsay  being 
renewed  and  confirmed  in  the  Chancery." 

Although  the  short-lived  Priory  at  Embsay,  founded  in  1121,  was 
abandoned  in  1155,*  a  dependent  cell  was  maintained  there  by  the 
Canons  of  Bolton  until  the  Dissolution  in  1540.  The  Abbey  accounts 
show  that  the  church  was  restored  in  1315  and  in  1320  a  new  wall 
was  built  round  the  churchyard.  Portions  of  the  original  buildings 
were  taken  down  and  doubtless  some  of  the  masonry  conveyed  by 
ox-wains  to  the  new  monastery  beside  the  Wharfe.  At  Embsay 
there  is  little  left  now  but  the  turf-grown  foundations,  but  a  number 
of  ancient  carved  and  mason-marked  stones  remain  in  the  buildings 
of  the  present  mansion  of  Embsay  Kirk,  which  are  probably  relics 
of  the  old  Priory.  The  mansion  on  the  site  was  built  about  1780 
and  is  not  without  some  interesting  associations.  The  late  revered 
Primate,  Dr.  Benson,  always  retained  the  happiest  recollections  of 
the  many  visits  of  his  boyhood  which  he  made  when  this  house  was 
the  home  of  Mr.  John  Sidgwick,  whose  niece,  Mary,  daughter  of 
the  Rev.  Wm.  Sidgwick,  he  afterwards  married.  Mrs.  Benson's 
mother,  Mary  Crofts,  who  married  the  Rev.  Wm.  Sidgwick,  was 
brought  up  at  Bolton  Abbey  by  her  uncle,  the  Rev.  Wm.  Carr,  of 
whom  I  shall  speak  hereafter,  and  in  the  old  Priory  churchyard 
beside  the  murmuring  Wharfe,  sleep  many  of  the  worthy  Archbishop's 
nearest  and  dearest  kindred. 

Cecily,   daughter  and  heiress   of   Robert    de   Romille,  the   first 

*  I  find  in  the  Pipe  Roll  for  8th  Henry  II.  (1161)  reference  to  the  Mon.  de  Ebesi, 
[Embsay?],  Mon  de  Berdes,  Mon.  de  Chirchestal  and  Mon.  de  Sallea,  all  in 
Everwichescr  [Yorkshire],  The  town  of  Embesi,  the  chapel  at  Carleton,  and  the  vill 
of  Kildvvic,  with  the  mill  there,  formed  the  original  endowment  of  the  Priory  at 
Embsay, 


295 

grantee  after  the  Conquest,  married  William  tie  Meschines.  ^rand- 
nephew  of  the  dispossessed  Saxon  Earl  Edwin,  and  this  noble  couple 
were  the  founders  of  Embsay  Priory.  Their  daughter,  Adelixa,  who 
was  coheiress  with  her  sister,  Avicia,  who  married  William  de 
Paganel,  lord  of  Leeds,  &c.,  granted  in  her  maternal  name  of  Romille. 
the  site  at  Bolton  for  the  Canons'  Priory  then  at  Embsay.  Sin- 
married  William  Fitz  Duncan,  nephew  of  David,  King  of  Scotland, 
by  whom'  she  had  an  only  son,  William,  "The  Boy  of  Egremond" 
whose  signature  appears  in  the  following  charter.  The  precious 
original,  which  was  not  known  to  Whitaker  (vide  Craven  ^rd  ed. 
p.  511)  I  have  seen  at  Bolton  Abbey  preserved  in  a  small  mahogany 
box,  fitted  with  glass  top,  and  the  deed  itself  measures  nine  by  five 
and-a-half  inches.  The  date  is  assigned  to  iyth  Stephen  (1151)*,  and 
the  grant  was  confirmed  by  his  successor,  Henry  II. 

GRANT     BY    ADELI7A     OE     RCMELLl    TO    THE    CANONS    OK     KMHSAV     OI       I  HI       MANOK 
OK     BOLTON    ON     WHARKK. 

Be  it  known  to  all  sons  of  Holy  Church  as  well  present  as  those  of  future  time  that 
I  Adeliza  de  Rumelli  by  the  consent  and  assent  ot  William  my  son  and  heir  and  of  my 
daughters  have  given  granted  and  by  this  my  present  charter  continued  to  God  and 
the  Canons  Regular  of  St.  Mary  and  St.  Cuthbert  of  Embesay  the  whole  Manor  of 
Bolton  with  all  its  appurtenances  in  wood  and  plain  in  waters  meadows  pastures 
throughout  their  devises;  to  wit  from  Lumgile  under  the  hedge  which  is  called  Lobwith 
as  it  descends  from  the  Moor  which  is  called  Lobwithbec  by  the  said  Lumgile  as  far  a- 
the  River  of  Wharf  and  so  ascending  the  said  river  to  Berdcnbec  and  so  by  Berdenbcc 
to  Crossekelde  and  to  the  road  which  goes  by  Merebec  which  is  the  devise  between 
Boelton  and  Halton  and  so  to  Hameldune  towards  the  west  by  the  devises  of  Berewick 
until  it  returns  to  Lumgillheved  on  the  moor  by  Lobwith  with  all  liberties  and  all  tree 
customs  which  I  or  any  of  my  ancestors  shall  have  had  or  may  have  in  the  said  Manor 
without  any  withholding  in  free  pure  and  perpetual  alms  in  exchange  for  two  manors 
which  were  of  the  Canons  to  wit  Stretone  and  Skibdune  wherefore  I  will  and  command 
that  the  aforesaid  Canons  shall  have  and  hold  the  aforesaid  Manor  of  Boulton  with  all  its 
appurtenances  through  the  aforesaid  devises  with  all  liberties  and  immunities  which 
man  can  give  well  and  in  peace  freely  and  quietly  free  from  all  secular  service  custom 
and  exaction  belonging  to  any  mortal,  as  free  pure  and  perpetual  alms  for  the  health  of 
my  soul  and  of  my  predecessors  and  successors  And  this  exchange  I  and  my  heirs  to 
aforenamed  Canons  will  warrant.  These  being  witnesses  William  my  son  of  Egremont, 
Adam  son  of  Swanif,  Henry  son  of  Swani,  Osbert  Archdeacon,  William  of  fflanders, 
Arthur  of  Halton,  Maleverer  Jordon  son  of  Esselsi,  Roger  Tempest,  Roger  Faisington, 
Simon  MahauntJ:,  Peter  de  Morton,  He  -  of  York,  William  de  RillestonjS, 
Ketellus  son  of  Torsini,  Robert  Macun,  Edward  Chamber,  Roger  Muncin,  Albred  son 
of —  — ,  Adam  of  ffernehill,  Hano  ffauvell,  Geoffrey  More  and  many  others. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  while  this  grant  was  made  "by  the  consent 
and  assent  of  William,  my  son  and  heir,"  in  a  subsequent  charter  by 

*  The  church  at  Long  Preston  formed  part  of  the  original  endowments  of  the 
newly-translated  Priory,  and  the  grant  was  confirmed  by  Archbishop  Murdac,  who 
held  the  See  of  York  from  1 148  to  1 1  =53. 

|  Adam  fil  Swani  appears  in  the  Black  Book  of  the  Exchequer  as  holding  one 
knight's  fee  of  the  heirs  of  Romille. 

J  Simon  Mahaut  or  Montalte  was  living  in  1165. 

§  In  the  Pipe  Rolls  for  12  Henry  II.  (1165-6)  I  find  Will,  de  Rilleston  owing  60 
marks  for  recognizances  in  the  wapentake  of  Staincliffe, 


296 

the  same  lady,  extending  her  benefactions,  there  is  no  allusion  to  her 
said  son  and  heir,  "  the  boy  of  Egremond,"  which  is  significant,  and 
from  which  circumstance  it  may  be  inferred  that  he  had  in  the 
meantime  disappeared,  thus  accounting  for  the  old  "  Legend  of  the 
Strid."  In  her  second  donation  the  Lady  Adeliza  gave  to  the 
canons  the  very  important  privilege  of  hunting  and  slaying  all  wild 
beasts  throughout  her  fee  in  Craven,  and  they  were  to  have  for  their 
pains  every  tenth  beast  so  taken.  Many  a  gallant  hunt  after  boar 
and  wolf,  red-deer  and  wild  cattle,  must  the  old  monks  have  enjoyed 
among  the  woods  and  crags  of  upper  Wharfedale  !  She  also  gave 
them  the  place  called  Stede,  with  all  the  land  betwixt  Poseford  and 
Spectebek  and  the  water  of  Wharfe  and  Walkesburn.  The  monks 
had  a  grange  at  Stede  or  Stead,  which  they  rebuilt  in  1318,  after  the 
destruction  wrought  by  the  Scots.  In  the  compotus  of  the  Priory 
for  1298-9  the  grange  of  Stead  is  stated  to  have  yielded  this  year 
one  quarter  and  two  bushels  of  corn  at  4s.  per  quarter,  and  in  the 
same  year  one  Robert  de  Somerscales  took  the  vaccary  of  Stede, 
with  17  cows,  at  an  annual  rent  for  each  cow  of  four  stones  of  cheese 
and  two  stones  of  butter.  The  place  is  not  now  existing,  but  is 
mentioned  in  the  original  grant  of  Bolton  to  the  Earl  of  Cumberland 
in  1542,  as  situated  at  Storiths-in-Hazlewood.*  Specte  Beck  is  an 
interesting  survival  of  the  A.-S.  specht,  a  woodpecker,  whence  Speight, 
which  has  this  meaning  in  old  English  prose  and  poetry.  The  word 
in  this  sense  is  now  obsolete,  though  it  survives  as  a  personal  name 
chiefly  in  the  West  Riding  of  Yorkshire.f  The  old  Ilkley  family 
name  of  Heber  (see  page  245)  is  probably  of  similar  origin,  being 
derived  from  the  A.-S.  heber,  a  goat. 

There  are  also  a  number  of  early  grants  to  the  Canons  of  Bolton 
not  cited  by  Burton,  Dugdale,  or  Whitaker,  among  the  Duke  of 
Devonshire's  archives  at  Bolton  Abbey  Many  of  these  relate  to 
Halton  and  Cononley.  Amongst  them  is  a  grant  by  Richard  de 
Pinkeney,  of  Halton:  to  the  Canons  of  Bolton  of  two  acres  of  land, 
with  appurtenances,  in  Halton,  to  wit  one  selion  upon  Weyelands, 
one  selion  upon  Oakelands,  one  selion  upon  Scelerumbergh,  two  selions 
upon  Quikeman,  as  they  lie  for  another  half  acre:  and  one  acre  which 
abuts  upon  the  toft  which  Ralph  formerly  held  of  John  de  Eston,  and 
afterwards  of  the  aforesaid  canons.  This  charter  is  witnessed  by 

*  Where,  by  the  way,  is  the  site  described  by  Whitaker  (1805)  as  being'  in  "a 
pasture  at  the  south-east  extremity  of  Barden,  where  is  a  considerable  space  of  ground 
covered  by  old  housesteads?  A  long  tract  resembling  a  street,  stretching-  from  N.W. 
to  S.  K.  has  been  levelled  with  much  toil,  and  on  ither  side  are  vestiges  of  numerous 
enclosures,  large  and  small.  The  lands  adjoining,  now  covered  with  ling,  bear  evident 
marks  of  the  plough." 

f  "  Speyhtt  How"  is  also  mentioned  in  the  compotus  of  the  Priory  for  1298-9. 
Spect  or  Speig-ht  Beck  at  Bolton  must  have  been  a  favorite  haunt  of  this  bird  a 
thousand  years  ag^o. 


297 

John  (It-  I'Ntoii,  ( 'h.irlo  Mauleverer,  Robert  ntor,  ami  otht  t 

The  same  Richard  de  Pinkeney  also  gives  to  the  canons,  with  his 
body,  half  an  acre  of  land  in  Halton  which  extends  beyond  the  west 
side  of  Hallehill.  Witnessed  by  Richard  del  Hill,  Thomas  de  Halton, 
Richard  Dilloc,  his  brother,  Walter,  son  of  Helte  de  Estby,  William 
Mauleverer,  &c.  He,  the  said  Richard,  also  gave  to  the  "Canons  of 
Bowthelton,"  a  rood  of  land  at  Cockelde,  half  a  rood  at  Baxetorne, 
and  half  a  rood  at  Harestones.  Sybilla,  daughter  of  William  le 
Granger,  of  Halton,  ceded  to  the  canons  all  right  and  claim  she  had 
in  four  bovates  of  land  in  Halton,  which  formerly  were  of  Peter  de 
Carleton,  her  grandfather.  Witnessed  by  Sir  John  le  Vavasour,  Sir 
Robert  de  Plumpton,  Wm.  Mauleverer  of  Beamsley,  and  Wm.  de 
Aula  of  Skipton.  Matilda,  some  time  wife  of  Adam  Faber  (Smith) 
de  Halton,  ceded  to  the  canons  her  right  to  a  rood  of  arable  land  at 
Halton,  which  formerly  belonged  to  Wm.  de  Hill  of  the  same  place. 
Witnessed  by  Sir  Thos.  de  Haltaripa,  Wm.  de  Malgh',  (Malham), 
Richard  Fauvel,  and  others.  This  Richard  Fauvel  married  the  heiress 
of  Sir  Helias  de  Rilleston,  and  was  conjointly  with  Henry  de 
Hertlington,  lord  of  Rilston  in  1315-16.  A  further  Halton  deed  recites 
that  one  Richard  Beche,  (whose  name  occurs  in  the  Bolton  Abbey 
accounts  for  1298),  granted  to  Robert  de  Berden  (a  descendant, 
perhaps,  of  the  Richard  de  Bardani,  who  witnesses  a  charter  of 
about  the  time  of  the  Conquest)  and  his  heirs,  a  messuage  with 
curtilage  in  the  vill  of  Halton,  which  lies  between  the  toft  of  Robert 
le  Sauer  on  the  south  side  and  Halton  Moor  on  the  north.  Witnessed 
by  Thomas  de  Altaripa,  Henry  de  Hertlington  (ob.  1335),  Wm.  de 
Hebden,  Knights,  Henry  de  Kyghley  de  Appletrewyk,  Robt.  le  Sauer 
de  Halton,  &c.  Given  at  Halton  on  St.  Mark's  Day,  1316.  The 
above  Sir  Wm.  de  Hebden  who  held  the  manor  of  Hebden,  also 
witnesses  several  other  deeds.  In  1315  the  Prior  of  Bolton  was 
returned  as  lord  of  the  manor  of  Halton-cum-  Embsay. 

There  are  several  interesting  old  houses  at  Halton,  including 
Dyneley  Manor  and  the  White  House,  the  latter  inscribed  R.  B. 
1620,  no  doubt  having  been  built  by  a  Benson.  There  is  also  a  neat 
Mission  Room,  the  foundation  stone  of  which  was  laid  by  Gilson 
Martin,  Esq.,  of  Edensor,  July  3rd,  1891.  Services  are  held  in  it 
weekly  by  the  rector  of  Bolton. 

Hen-  i-~  an  interesting  reference  to  the  Old  English  open-field  system,  when  the 
land  was  all  in  strips  or  "selions."  The  word  is  the  same  as  the  Norm-French  sillon, 
a  furrow,  and  very  likely  has  its  root  in  the  Ang-Saxon  selian,  to  give,  grant,  or  bestow. 
These  littlccultivated  strips  at  Halton  each  about  a  rood  in  extent,  scattered  promiscuously 
about  the  unfenced  field,  are  known  as  "lands"  (when  arable)  and  "dales"  (when 
meadow),  and  the  ridges  that  divide  them  as  "balks."  They  appear  to  have  been  under 
different  ownerships  and  according  to  Mr.  Seebohm,  the  selion  was  the  measure  of  a 
villein's  day's  ploughing  between  Easter  and  Pentecost ;  the  lands  of  the  village 
commune  being  parcelled  out  in  proportion  to  the  oxen  or  other  goods  each  holder 
furnished  to  the  village  plough-team. 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 


BOLTON   ABBEY  :    RECORDS   OF   EIGHT   CENTURIES. 

Descent  of  the  manor  to  the  Cliffords — Purchase  of  the  lordships  of  Bolton  &c.  by 
Henry,  Earl  of  Cumberland— The  Priory  raided  by  the  Scots — Abstracts  from  and 
remarks  upon  the  ancient  Compotus  of  the  Priory— Death  of  the  Lady  Marg-aret 
Neville  and  the  pomp  of  her  funeral — -The  Nortons  and  the  Catholic  rebellion — 
Notes  from  letters  at  Bolton  Abbey — Effects  of  the  Dissolution — Local  notices  of 
the  Civil  War — Succession  of  the  manor — The  Cavendish  family — Bolton  Hall — 
Armorial  errors — Cavendish  Memorial  Fountain — The  late  Duke  of  Devonshire. 

N  the  last  chapter  I  have  told  the  story  of  the  foundation 
of  Bolton  Priory  from  original  records,  and  the  reader 
who  chooses  to  pass  through  the  charming  woods  to 
the_Strid  may  now  picture  the  "Boy  of  Egremond"  as 
his  fancy  listeth.  By  the  death  of  young  Romille, 
(however  it  may  have  happened,)  his  sister  Cecily  inherited  the  great 
honour  of  Skipton,  and  she  married  (i)  Alexander  Fitz  Gerin,  by 
whom  there  was  no  issue,  and  (2)  William  le  Gross,  Earl  of  Albemarle, 
and  lord  of  Holderness,  who  died  in  1179.  With  the  Albernarles  the 
estates  continued  till  the  death  without  issue  ca.  1280,  of  Aveline, 
Countess  of  Albemarle,  widow  of  Edmund  Crouchback,  second  son 
of  Henry  III.,  when  the  barony  became  vested  in  the  Crown.  Old 
Grose  tells  us  that  King  Edward  II.  granted  the  honour  and  castle  of 
Skipton  to  Robert,  Lord  Clifford,  on  condition  that  he  should  perform 
the  same  services  to  the  Crown  as  the  great  Earls  of  Albemarle  had 
done.  Lord  Clifford  had  already  distinguished  himself  in  the  wars  in 
Scotland,  and  it  was  he  who  signed  the  famous  letter  from  Edward  I. 
to  Pope  Boniface,  claiming  the  seigniory  of  Scotland,  by  the  title 
of  Chatellain  of  Appleby.  The  grant  of  the  fee  of  Skipton  in  1309 
would  appear  to  have  been  made  to  him  for  life,  but  in  1311  it  was 
confirmed  to  him  and  his  heirs  in  perpetuity,  in  exchange  for  military 
service  and  for  certain  lands  of  his  inheritance  in  Monmouthshire. 
This  Lord  Clifford  fell  at  Bannockburn  in  1314,  and  was  succeeded 
in  the  ownership  of  his  dominions  by  a  long  line  of  illustrious  men 
and  women,  whose  descendants,  through  the  marriage  in  1608  of  the 
last  of  the  Cliffords,  the  famous  Lady  Anne,  i4th  lord  of  the  honour 
of  Skipton,  wilh  Sackville,  Earl  of  Dorset,  still  own  the  Skipton 
estates  in  the  person  of  Lord  Hothfield. 

The  noble  owners  of  Bolton  Abbey  are,  however,  descended 
from  Francis,  Lord  Clifford,  fourth  Earl  of  Cumberland,  who  succeeded 
in  1605  to  tht  Earldom  on  the  death  of  his  brother  George,  Lord 
Clifford,  father  (A  the  above  Lady  Anne.  Henry,  Lord  Clifford,  their 
grandfather,  who  was  the  first  Earl  of  Cumberland,  purchased  the 


299 

\i>l)e\  estates  .md  other  properties  elsewhere  lately  l» 
to  the  dissolved  monasteries.  In  addition  to  the  site  of  Bolton 
Priory,  the  purchase  included  the  lordships  of  Bolton,  Storiths,  and 
Hazlewood,  with  the  manors  of  Wigton,  Brandon,  Embsay,  Eastby, 
part  of  Halton,  Cononley,  Rawdon,  and  Yeadon,  and  certain  lands 
and  tenements  in  Barwick  and  Draughton,  Skipton,  Long  Preston, 
Gargrave,  Steeton,  Marton,  Cracoe,  Threshfield,  and  Harden;  also 
the  advowsons  of  the  rectories  of  Keighley  and  Marton.  The  whole 
of  this  property  was  sold  for  the  sum  of  ^2,490,  equivalent  to  about 
,£25,000  of  present  money.  The  license  necessary  for  this  important 
purchase  is  dated  April  3rd,  1542,  and  within  three  weeks  the  Earl 
died,  at  the  age  of  forty-nine,  and  was  interred  in  the  vault  at  Skipton, 
being  the  first  of  the  Cliffords  to  find  a  sepulchre  outside  the 
dissolved  Priory.  His  son  Henry,  the  second  Earl,  made  the  most 
eminent  matrimonial  alliance  that  has  ever  taken  place  in  Craven. 
He  married,  the  noble  and  accomplished  Lady  Eleanor  Brandon, 
daughter  of  Charles  Duke  of  Suffolk  by  Mary,  Queen  Dowager  of 
France,  daughter  of  King  Henry  VII.  The  ceremony  took  place  at 
Skipton  Castle,  the  King  himself  being  present  with  a  distinguished 
company. 

The  endowments  of  the  Priory,  or  Abbey  as  it  is  now  officially 
described,*  consisted  of  lands,  tenements,  and  hereditaments  which, 
with  exception  of  certain  lands  and  houses  in  York,  lay  wholly 
within  the  province  of  the  West  Riding.  The  places  where  they 
were  situate  are  the  following : 

Alwoodley,  Appletrewick,  Arncliffe,  Ayrton,  Arnford,  Bolton,  Bradley,  Brandon, 
Broughton  (the  church),  Brydlath,  Burley  in  Wharfedale  (Scaleber),  Coldcotes,  Calton, 
Carleton  (Skipton),  Castley,  Cowling',  Cononley,  Cracoe,  Deepdalestall,  Draughton, 
Embsay,  Eastburn,  Eastby,  Farnhill,  Gargrave,  Gilduflat,  Glusburn,  Halthauit,  Halton, 
Harewood,  Ilaytefeld  East,  Holmeton,  Hellifield,  Holme,  Keighley,  Keswick 
(\Yetherby),  Kettlewell,  Kildwick,  Killingbeck,  Lofthouse,  Malham,  Marton,  Middleton, 
N'ewhiggin,  Newton,  Penigsthorpe,  Long  Preston,  Rawdon,  Scosthrop,  Seacroft, 
Silsdon,  Siglesferne,  Skibeden,  Skipton,  Staveley,  Stede,  Steeton,  Stirk  and  Storth, 
Stirton,  Threshfield,  Wenteworth,  Wceton,  \\'hinfield,  Wincrthley,  \Vigglesworth, 
Wigdon,  Yeadon  and  York. 

In  addition  the  monks  had  the  right  of  free  chase  within 
Romille's  fee  of  Craven,  and  in  1257  they  had  granted  free  warren  in 
Bolton,  Kildwick,  Stede,  Riding, f  Hou,  Halcum,  Malgrum,  Seteches, 
Wykedon,  Brandon,  Wentworth,  Strete  and  Ryther.  Burton  has 
calculated  the  annual  income  from  the  monks'  estates,  with  the  value 
of  effects  soldjn  one  year  (1324)  to  be  ^"444  175.  4d.,  but  according 

*  The  difference  between  an  Abbey  and  a  Priory  consisted  in  the  higher  rank  of  the 
former,  the  advowson  and  presentation  of  which  belonged  to  the  King,  whilst  in 
Priories  proper  they  belonged  to  the  founder  and  his  successors.  Also  the  English 
Abbots  had  seats  in  Parliament,  and  only  heads  of  Priories  were  so  privileged,  who  sat 
with  the  Bishops  in  the  Upper  House. 

f  How  Stede  Riddyng  and  Storthes  occurs  in  the  Abbey  accounts  for  1298. 


300 

to  the  rental  taken  in  i535,_five  years  before  the  Dissolution,  the 
revenues  only  amounted  to  ^302  qs,  3d.  The  unsparing  raids  of 
the  Highlanders  after  the  English  defeat  at  Bannockburn  in  1314, 
told  sorely  upon  their  Craven  lands ;  houses,  granges  and  churches 
were  sacked,  cattle  carried  off,  and  some  places  were  utterly  ruined. 
The  Priory  itself  was  pillaged  and  the  inmates  had  to  fly  for  their 
lives.  There  is  a  succession  of  mournful  entries  in  the  Priory 
accounts  from  1317  to  1321.  In  1319  is  the  entry:  "No  compotus 
this  year  because  of  the  invasion  of  the  Scots."  Twenty  years 
before  this  time  peace  and  prosperity  reigned  over  fell  and  field  and 
hamlet  and  all  Craven  was  contented  and  happy.  The  Abbey  too 
was  considerably  enlarged  and  partly  rebuilt.  Never  before  had 
such  an  era  of  prosperity  been  known  in  the  Yorkshire  Dales,  and 
not  for  more  than  two  centuries  afterwards  was  it  recovered.  In 
1299  at  Bolton  and  the  granges  belonging  to  the  house,  the  monks 
had  a  stock  of  713  horned  cattle,  besides  2193  sheep,  95  pigs  and  91 
goats,  and  they  slaughtered  in  that  year  besides  venison,  fish  and 
poultry,  more  than  300  head  of  cattle,  sheep  and  pigs.  In  this  same 
year  (1299)  the  annual  income  from  their  possessions  reached  the 
handsome  total  of  ^865,  which  fell  to  nearly  one-third  of  this  amount 
at  the  Dissolution  of  the  monastery  in  1539-40.  The  number  of 
servants  was  also  proportionately  reduced,  and  the  old  monastery 
shewed  all  the  signs  of  decline. 

The  accounts  of  the  monastery  during  eventful  years  of  its 
history  are  contained  in  a  manuscript  compotus  extending  from  the 
year  1290  to  1325,  and  as  no  translation  of  these  has  appeared,  a 
few  of  the  more  interesting  items  may  be  given.  The  expenses  of 
the  kitchen  shewed  that  the  monks  lived  well  and  dispensed  their 
hospitality  in  no  mean  manner.  In  1298  they  spent  ,£11  6s.  id.  in 
salt  meat,  bought  at  Clithorp.  Can  this  be  Cleethorpe,  which, 
though  a  modern  watering-place,  is  a  very  old  village  in  the  Saxon 
parish  of  Clee.  Co.  Lincoln  ?  For  fish  bought  at  Appleton  they  paid 
£4.  135.  4d.,  and  for  fish  bought  at  St.  Botolph's  ^£4  8s.  4d.  This 
can  be  none  other  than  Boston  in  Lincolnshire,  so  I  conclude  it  was 
at  Cleethorpe  they  purchased  salt-fish.  They  consumed  eggs  by  the 
thousand,  and  in  1298  paid  2is.  2d.  for  supplies  of  this  comestible; 
also  425.  for  18  quarters  of  salt.  They  liked  their  meats  well  salted, 
and  seasoned,  and  paid  55.  for  pepper,  saffron  and  oil  and  other 
spices  in  the  same  year.  High  seasoning  provokes  thirst,  and  we 
have  accordingly  some  entries  of  amounts  paid  for  liquor  to  appease 
it,  including  ^7  155.  i  id.  paid  for  three  pipes  of  wine,  and  the  carriage 
of  it.  The  pipe  may  be  reckoned  at  126  gallons.  Of  ale  they  brewed 
immense  stores.  For  hawks,  hens,  and  goats,  they  paid  in  1298, 
195.  2d.  In  this  year  they  distributed  in  alms  32^  quarters  of  fine 
wheat,  barley,  and  meal.  The  rich  old  monastery  was  a  hospice  of 
charity ;  no  one  wanted,  not  even  a  dog.  Fifty-five  quarters  of  meal 


3oi 

used  in  food  for  the  buck-hounds  and  wolf-hounds  and  all  the 
other  dogs  in  the  service  of  the  monastery  this  same  year  ,  while 
the  horses  within  the  Cure  and  without  consumed  333  quarters,  5 
bushels.  The  monks  had  some  grand  animals.  They  paid  some 
times  as  much  as  £10  for  a  horse  in  the  I3th-i4th  century,  quite 
,£150  of  our  money.  Next  we  find  i8s.  6d.  paid  for  mowing  the 
meadows  at  Bolton,  and  418.  4d.  for  thrashing  corn  at  Bolton,  and 
355.  id.  for  thrashing  and  mowing  at  Otley.  Harvesting  the  monks' 
meadows  in  Wharfedale  was  an  extraordinary  event ;  men  and 
women  coming  into  the  district  to  assist  on  "harvest-day"  from  all 
the  villages  for  many  miles  round.  Every  farm  sent  its  man,  who 
carried  a  bow  or  sword  which  he  laid  beside  him  in  the  field  where 
he  worked.  The  monks  preferred  to  have  all  their  corn  cut  and 
stacked  in  a  single  day,  and  the  accounts  shew  that  sometimes  as 
many  as  1000  men  were  engaged  to  reap  at  Bolton  for  one  day, 
each  receiving  2d.,  while  some  300  boon-reapers  (tenants  who  owed 
service  to  the  monks)  got  each  by  custom  a  half-penny  for  food. 
Contrast  this  with  four  centuries  later  when  in  1716  I  find  men 
haymakers  at  Bolton  received  8d.  a  day  and  women  6d. 

The  strips  and  reins  of  old  corn-lands  can  still  be  discerned  in 
the  grass  pastures  about  the  Abbey.  They  kept  blacksmiths  to 
make  and  mend  the  ploughs  and  shoe  the  horses  and  perhaps  the 
oxen.  Oxen  were  always  preferred  on  the  roads.  Where,  pray,  was 
the  old  smithy  in  1294?  In  that  year  ics.  was  paid  for  sea-coal  for 
the  forge,  which  is  probably  the  earliest  reference  to  the  use  of  coal 
in  Yorkshire,  though  in  Shropshire,  Walter  de  Clifford  I  find  obtained 
a  licence  to  dig  coals  within  the  Forest  of  La  Clie  in  1263.  In  1306 
the  use  of  coal  was  publicly  prohibited.  In  1298  the  monks  again 
spent  lys.  in  sea-coal  for  burning  lime.  Lime  obtained  from  river 
pebbles  was  burnt  here  for  mortar  used  in  the  building  of  Skipton 
Castle  (which  stands  on  limestone  rock)  soon  after  the  Conquest. 
Doubtless  before  the  Normans  came  all  the  buildings  in  this  forest-land 
were  of  wood.  The  next  items  in  1298  I  will  quote,  relate  to  the 
expenses  of  the  sheep  &c.,  the  monks  being  large  sheep-farmers,  and 

not  only  the  flesh  but  the  milk  as  well  :— 

For  oil,  soap  and  fat,  bought  for  anointing-  the  sheep  ^"4  10  7 

For  quicksilver  and  green  paint  bought  at  York  ...  1211 

For  34  Ibs.  of  green  paint  and  12  Ibs.  of  quicksilver,  bought  at  St. 

Botolph's  [Boston  Fair,  Lincolnshire]  ...  ...  ...  ...  i  12  o 

For  hay  bought  at  Unkethorpe  [Marton]  096 

Milk  for  the  lambs     ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...         o   19     i 

For  washing,  shearing,  "  barmeclathes,"  and  for  women  milking 

the  sheep...         ...         .  .         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         o  is     -' 

For  fat  and  cotton  for  making  candles    ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         o  17     i 

Adam  de  Elshow  takes  the  vaccary  of  Howe  with  19  cows,  and  is 

bound  to  answer  for  each  cow  4  stones  of  cheese  and  2  stones 

nt  I  Hitter ;  for  a  stone  of  cheese  ^d.  and  for  a  stone  of  butter  8d. 


302 

In  this  year  1298  is  an  entry  of  i6s.  equal  to  at  least  ^15  of 
our  money,  spent  on  gold  and  colour  for  painting  and  illuminating  a 
missal.  What  a  sumptuous  tome  this  must  have  been,  upon  which 
all  the  skill  and  love  of  the  artist  in  his  work  were  expended.  It  wa^ 
within  the  storied  walls  of  these  old  monasteries  that  most  of  .the 
eminent  artists  and  men  of  letters  of  that  time  were  educated  and 
trained.  Learning  there  received  its  greatest  encouragement,  and 
where  one  was  always  sure  of  finding  the  largest  and  best  collections 
of  books — 

"  Golden  volumes !   richest  treasures ! 
Objects  of  delicious  pleasures." 

were  these  old  monastic  books.  In  many  of  our  abbeys  are  certain 
rooms  and  small  closets,  which  we  sometimes  find  marked  on 
ground-plans  and  described  as  "use  unknown,"  which  may  often 
safely  be  put  down  as  the  receptacles  of  rare  books  and  manuscripts, 
including  original  charters  and  grants  to  the  religious  holding  them. 
In  1310  for  example  the  canons  paid  6s.  for  a  book  called  "The 
Truths  of  Theology,"  and  we  may  be  sure  such  an  expensive  book 
would  be  carefully  closeted  when  not  in  use. 

Other  interesting  items  may  be  mentioned,  such  for  example  as 
the  sum  of  ys.  6d.  expense  incurred  by  the  King's  esquire  coming  to 
the  Abbey  in  1300  in  order  to  collect  wains  for  the  expedition 
against  the  Scots.  This  was  the  beginning  of  the  trouble  I  have 
mentioned  on  page  205.  Then  we  have  an  entry  in  1300  of  an 
exceptional  kind,  namely  for  expenses  of  the  Prior  journeying  through 
England  to  the  Court  of  Rome  in  order  to  obtain  a  bull  for 
Appletrewick,  that  manor  having  just  been  purchased  by  the  monks. 
The  journey  out  and  home  cost  about  ^34  13$.,  or  about  ^500 
according  to  the  present  standard,  shewing  with  what  state  and 
circumstance  the  head  of  the  monastery  travelled.  In  the  same 
year  presents  to  the  value  of  £6  13$.  qd.  were  made  to  the  Lord 
Archbishop  of  York  at  his  enthronization.  In  1303-4  Hayne,  the 
King's  porter  receives  6s.  8d.  for  delivering  the  wains  in  Scotland. 
The  same  year  the  Archbishop's  clerks  receive  sos.  for  writing  the 
charter  of  appropriation  of  the  Church  of  Long  Preston  ;  also  the 
clerks  of  the  Chapter  of  York  get  405.  for  writing  the  same  charter 
and  confirmation  of  the  church  of  Carlton.  In  1306  a  gift  of  6s.  8d. 
is  received  from  Everard  Fauvel  for  the  glass  window  in  the  chancel 
of  Skipton  Church.  At  the  same  time  648.  8d.  was  disbursed  for 
the  building  and  reparation  of  the  choir  of  Skipton  Church,  and  the 
window  lattices  were  put  up  in  1307. 

In  the  same  year  2s.  6d.  is  paid  for  a  feather-bed,  a  luxury 
indeed,  considering  that  even  so  late  as  the  Reformation  most  people 
slept  on  hay  or  straw  or  rushes.  No  doubt  it  was  for  the  Lord  Prior, 
as  in  this  year  345.  6d.  is  spent  on  his  private  chamber,  besides 
something  for  benches  and  cushions,  and  a  bell  to  summon  his 


3°3 

attendants.  Next  year  he  had  a  severe  illness  and  a  physician  was 
to  summon,  probably  from  York,  who  sent  in  a  bill  for  40$. 

In  1307  the  tolls  of  Embsay  Fair  amounted  to  £8  ios.,  equal 
to  about  ^120  of  our  standard.  This  upholds  what  I  have  contended 
in  the  last  chapter  on  the  paramount  importance  of  Embsay.  St. 
Cuthbert's  "Wake"  was  still  kept  up,  and  must  have  been  one  of 
the  greatest  and  merriest  gatherings  Craven  has  ever  known.  Even 
the  tolls  of  a  weekly  market  at  Skipton  with  two  fairs  in  the  year 
only  yielded  ;£i6  138.  4d.,  and  after  the  dissolution  of  monasteries 
did  not  bring  so  much  as  this.  Robert;  Lord  Clifford,  mentioned  in 
the  early  part  of  this  chapter,  had  at  this  time  begun  the  extension 
and  rebuilding  of  Skipton  Castle,  a  great  and  costly  undertaking. 
He  was  Earl  Marshall  of  England,  and  one  of  the  most  powerful 
nobles  then  living.  The  monks  sought  to  gain  the  favor  of  him  and 
his  lady  by  presents  of  jewels  which  necessitated  a  dip  into  the 
monastic  coffers  to  the  extent  of  ^5  8s.  8d.  Again  in  1312  they 
spent  i5s.  3d.  on  a  magnificent  candle  presented  to  Lady  Clifford  on 
the  day  of  her  purification,  probably  after  the  birth  of  her  only 
"laughter,  Idonea,  who  married  Henry,  Lord  Percy.  In  1313  two 
swans  sent  to  the  Earl  of  Lancaster  cost  the  establishment  i6s.  2d. 

In  1317  the  Prior  of  Bolton  was  summoned  to  Parliament  and 
his  attendance  incurred  an  expenditure  of  26s.  8d.  Next  year  he  rode 
in  state  to  York  in  order  to  be  present  at  the  enthronization  of 
Archbishop  Melton,  a  visit  that  cost  the  Priory  £2  3*.  8d.  The 
wealthy  and  pious  Lady  Margaret  Neville  was  a  benefactress  to  the 
Priory,  and  in  1318  there  is  a  present  to  her  from  the  monks  of  what 
must  have  been  a  very  handsome  silver-mounted  saddle  and  trappings 
which  cost  the  house  iocs.,  about  ^70  present  currency.  She  was 
the  daughter  and  sole  heiress  of  Sir  John  de  Longvillers,  and  married 
Geoffrey,  brother  to  Robert,  Lord  Neville  of  Raby  Castle.  Her 
husband  dying  in  1284,  it  would  appear  from  the  Abbey  annals,  she 
had  retired  to  this  neighbourhood,  residing  either  at  Neville  Hall, 
Gargrave,  or  at  Cononley  Hall,  to  which  latter  mansion  there  was  a 
private  chapel  attached.  In  Kirkby's  Inquest  she  appears  as  a  large 
landowner  at  Cleckheaton  in  the  Spen  Valley,  and  by  inquisition 
taken  in  1319  she  was  declared  possessed  (as  co-owner)  of  the  manor 
of  Gargrave  and  had  estates  in  other  places.  Her  family  were  lords 
of  Hornby  co.  Lancaster,  and  her  son,  Sir  John  Neville,  succeeded  to 
Hornby  manor  and  castle.  When  she  died  in  1318  there  was  a  great 
state  funeral,  attended  probably  by  not  fewer  than  1200  persons. 
The  monks  made  ample  provision  for  the  funeral  repast,  and  a  very 
impressive  service  must  have  been  witnessed  at  the  interment  within 
the  old  Abbey  choir.* 

*  The  Bolton  Abbey  registers  for  1698  contain  the  burial  entry  on  March  i7th  of 
Ann  Snowden,  as  interred  within  the  choir  ruin--.  She  was  no  doubt  a  relative  of  the 
ruratt'-in-ohargv,  the  Rev.  Ja*.  Snowden. 


When  after  the  suppression  of  the  monastery*  a  revolt  took 
place,  Sir  John  Neville,  was  one  of  its  staunchest  abettors,  and  was 
amongst  those  indicted  in  1569- for  high  treason  by  the  Protestant 
Queen  Elizabeth.  The  Tempests,  Malhams  and  Nortons  were  also 
in  this  rebellion.  The  story  of  the  Nortons  of  Rilston  has  been  told 
in  stirring  verse  by  Wordsworth  in  the  White  Doe  of  Rilston,  but  how 
many  or  which  of  the  "eight  good  sons"  of  old  Richard  Norton 
perished  by  the  headsman's  axe,  or  where  or  in  what  manner  they 
died,  does  not  appear  to  be  accurately  known.  The  account  given 
by  Dr.  John  Story  in  1571  must  however  be  relied  on,  that  he 
conversed  with  Richard  and  Francis  Norton  in  Flanders,  some  time 
after  the  rebellion.  His  statement  I  find  confirmed  in  the  Calendar 
of  State  Papers  for  1570  wherein  is  a  letter  written  by  Francis  Norton 
from  Antwerp  to  Lord  Burleigh  craving  his  intervention  with  the 
Queen  for  a  general  pardon.  The  records  at  Bolton  Abbey  shew 
that  one  of  Norton's  servants,  Richard  Kitchen,  butler  in  his 
household,  was  taken  and  publicly  executed  at  Ripon  for  joining  his 
master  in  the  rebellion.  This  Robert  Kitchen  I  take  to  be  a  son  of 
the  Robert  Kitchen,  the  old  park-keeper  of  the  Cliffords  who  gave 
evidence  in  the  famous  dispute  between  the  Cliffords  and  Nortons  as 
to  the  bounds  &c.  of  their  respective  deer-parks  in  1560.  Their 
descendants  are  in  Skipton  yet. 

There  are  many  interesting  letters  among  the  manuscripts  at 
Bolton  Abbey  referring  to  this  eventful  time.  One  dated  1559  is 
written  to  the  Earl  of  Cumberland  stating  that  precautions  are  being 
taken  against  the  threatened  insurrection,  and  that  the  Master  of  the 
Armory  has  been  solicited  to  supply  certain  corselets  and  pikes,  the 
corselets  at  3o/-  a-piece  and  the  pikes  at  2/-,  hagbuts  can  be  supplied 
at  8/-,  curryers  at  i6s.  8d.,  and  bills  at  i6s.,  but  gauntlets  cannot  be 
had  "  for  friendship  or  money."  The  dissolution  brought  about 
widespread  famine  and  misery,  which  saw  no  abatement  until  the 
new  Poor  Law  was  inaugurated  by  the  Parliament  of  Queen  Elizabeth. 
Large  numbers  took  to  false  coining  &c.,  and  the  prisons  almost 
everywhere  were  full.  Many,  these  letters  tell  us.  died  in  the  roads 
from  sheer  want.  There  is  a  draft  of  a  letter  apparently  written  by 
Lord  Clifford  and  dated  1604  which  presents  a  horrible  picture  of  an 
infectious  disease  that  was  then  raging  in  the  north.  Scores,  if  not 
hundreds,  of  false  coiners,  wanderers,  and  strolling  players  were  in 
prison  at  that  time,  and  in  a  reference  to  Newcastle  we  are  told  the 
goal  there  is  "  so  weak  and  noisome  most  of  the  notorious  prisoners 
had  escaped  and  some  had  died."  Such  as  were  able  were  dragged 
from  these  foul  cells  and  brought  to  the  bar ;  two  we  are  informed 
died  on  the  way,  while  some  poor  fallen  creatures  at  Newcastle  and 

*  A  list  of  the  Priors  of  Embsay  and  Bolton  from  A.D.  1120  to  the  Dissolution,  has 
been  furnished  by  Mr.  Baildon  in  the  Record  Series  of  the  Yorkshire  Archl.  Sooy. 


Carlisle  "  fell   down   speechless    before    us    while   tl  on   trial/' 

The  state  of  tiling  was  so  bad  that  mere  punishment  by  confinement 
in  the  sickening  dungeons  of  the  time  accelerated  rather  than 
mended  the  gathering  distress,  and  Lord  Clifford  boldly  asked  ^100 
from  the  King  out  of  the  forfeited  recognizances  for  the  sole  purposes 
of  charity.  In  1625  there  was  another  virulent  outbreak  of  the 
plague  in  Newcastle  and  other  places,  and  in  this  year  appears  a 
letter  signed  by  a  number  of  gentry  excusing  themselves  from  lending 
money  to  the  King.  A  letter  of  the  same  year  relates  to  the 
disarming  of  Papists,  except  nobility  and  peers  whom  his  Majesty- 
deals  with. 

I  have  before  alluded  to  the  effect  which  the  Civil  War  had 
upon  Wharfedale  ;  of  the  local  preparations  made  and  of  the  men 
who  took  part  in  it.  There  is  a  letter  among  the  Bolton  muniments 
dated  July  3ist  1638,  written  by  the  Earl  of  Arundel  to  Henry,  Lord 
Clifford,  the  last  Earl  of  Cumberland,  which  has  a  local  bearing  on 
this  great  strife.  The  writer  makes  a  humble  suggestion,  which  read 
in  these  modern  days  of  big  gun  factories  may  excite  a  smile  : — 

I  think  it  not  amiss  if  your  Lordship  by  your  example  would  invite  the  nobility  and 
gentry  of  the  North  to  set  on  with  country  smiths  to  make  plain  pit-res  and  pistols, 
with  rests  for  musket--,  and  such  like,  and  though  they  be  but  homely  work,  they  may 
stand  in  good  steade  ;  lead  can  not  want  so  near  Derbyshire,  and  his  Majesty  is  careful 
to  send  some  good  proporcion  of  powder  to  Hull  shortly. 

There  is  a  tradition  in  the  neighbourhood  that  before  the  fatal 
battle  of  Marston  in  1044.  I'rim  e  Rupert  came  through  Skipton  with 
his  army  and  camped  in  a.  field  of  growing  corn  at  Bolton.  The 
tradition  is  fully  warranted  by  the  fact  that  in  the  Clifford  family 
accounts  is  an  entry  of  an  allowance  made  to  the  farmer  for  the  royal 
trespass.  It  is  this:— 

Bolton,  \2  July,  1044.  Agreed  with  Richard  Barnvis,  tor  all  that  piece  of  ground 
at  Bolton  called  Hambilton,  as  it  now  putteth  out  to  be  eaten  and  foiled  by  the  Prince's 
horse  as  they  passed  through  this  countrv  &<-.  £20 

The  above  Lord  Clifford  did  not  live  to  see  the  end  of  the  war. 
but  died  at  York  in  December.  1^43,  and  was  interred  at  Skipton 
"amidst  the  roar  of  arms"  whilst  his  castle  was  being  held  for  the 
king.  The  Skipton  registers  contain  an  entry  of  the  burial  of  his 
daughter,  Lady  Frances  Clifford  in  the  May  previous,  at  the  age  of 
seventeen.  His  only  other  child  and  heiress,  Lady  Elizabeth  Clifford, 
married  in  1635  Richard  Boyle,  second  Earl  of  Cork  and  first  Earl  of 
Burlington,  who  died  in  1697.  It  was  the  Hon.  Robert  Boyle, 
cousin  to  Charles  the  succeeding  Earl  of  Burlington,  owner  of  the 
Bolton  Abbey  estates,  who  founded  the  Boyle  School  near  the  Abbey 
in  1700.  A  new  school  was  erected  at  Beamsley  in  1874,  and  the 
picturesque  old  building,  with  its  armorial  shield  of  Boyle,  and 
inscription  over  the  porch,  is  now  the  rectory. 

The  family  terminated  in  an  heiress.  Charlotte  Elizabeth,  onlv 
surviving  daughter  uf  Richard  Boyle,  Earl  of  Cork,  who  died  in  1754. 


306 

She  married  in  1748  William  Cavendish,  fourth  Duke  of  Devonshire, 
with  whose  descendants  the  Bolton  Abbey  estates  still  remain. 
There  are,  however,  some  important  errors  in  this  part  of  the  pedigree 
shewing  the  descent  of  the  Barony  of  Clifford  in  Whitaker's  Craven, 
which  the  subjoined  draught  will  correct.  It  is  also  brought  down 
to  the  present  time. 

Bolton  Hall,,  the  annual  resort  during  the  shooting-season  of  the 
Duke  of  Devonshire  and  party,  faces  the  west  front  of  the  Abbey. 
The  square  central  tower  of  the  Hall  is  the  ancient  gateway  of  the 
Abbey,  in  the  upper  room  of  which  the  greater  part  of  the  monastic 
records  were  kept.  This  interesting  remnant  of  the  old  Priory  is 
pictured  by  Landseer  in  his  famous  painting  of  "Bolton  Abbey  in 
the  Olden  Time,"  the  original  of  which  is  at  Chatsvvorth  House. 
The  two  large  arches  have  been  walled  up  and  suitable  additions 
made  for  residential  purposes.  What  was  the  covered  gateway  is 
now  a  large  dining-hall,  and  on  the  left  is  a  drawing-room  which 
contains  some  interesting  Clifford  family  portraits.  The  restoration 
into  a  residence  was  probably  carried  out  by  the  third  Earl  of 
Burlington  (1695-1753)  the  builder  of  Farrield  Hall,  before  mentioned, 
whose  monogram  surmounted  by  an  Earl's  coronet,  appears  over  the 
door  of  this  apartment.  On  the  fireplace  and  cornice  there  is  an 
incorrect  emblazonment  of  the  arms  of  the  Priory,  which  should  be 
gules,  a  cross  patonce,  ratre  (not  or)  argent  and  azure.  There  is  also 
another  heraldic  error  in  the  arms  shewn  on  the  Cavendish  Memorial 
Fountain.  The  shield  bearing  three  bucks'  heads  cabossed 
(Cavendish),  empaling  chequy,  or  and  azure,  a  fess  gules  (Clifford)  is 
an  impossible  conjunction,  for  no  such  marriage  took  place.  The 
Clifford  heiress  married  a  Boyle,  as  stated  above,  and  it  was  the 
heiress  of  the  third  Earl  of  Burlington  (Lady  Charlotte  Boyle)  who 
married  the  fourth  Duke  of  Devonshire,  as  shewn  in  the  annexed 
pedigree.  Their  arms,  Cavendish  empaling  Boyle  (per  bend 
embattled),  are  correctly  represented  on  one  of  the  two  shields  facing 
the  road,  but  the  one  intended  no  doubt  to  shew  the  descent  of 
Cavendish  from  the  Cliffords  ought  properly  to  have  been  Boyle, 
empaling  Clifford.  The  Fountain  is  a  very  handsome  memorial  to 
the  late  Lord  Frederick  Cavendish,  and  was  erected  in  1886  by  public 
subscription  of  the  electors  in  the  West  Riding  of  Yorkshire;  of 
which  he  was  a  Parliamentary  representative  at  the  time  of  his  death. 
There  is  also  a  very  beautiful  stone  cross  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
Abbey  raised  to  his  memory,  which  bears  an  inscritipon  reciting  the 
painful  circumstances  of  his  death  on  May  6th,  1882. 

Of  Lord  Frederick  it  may  be  affirmed  that  he  perished  while 
serving  the  interests  of  the  best  governed  country  on  earth.  To  the 
enduring  honour  of  his  family,  be  it  also  said,  there  are  few  of  our 
noble  houses  that  have  rendered  such  signal  and  self-sacrificing 
services  to  this  great  English  State.  Proceeding  from  the  high 


Pedigree  of  Cauendish 


^^M% 

.  \KMS     .Sti/ilr,    three  buiks'    heads  < 
<i/thrd,  or. 
CKKST     Ori'i-ii  cnnvn  ct  serpent  >nw 
SrrroKi  KKS    -7n'<>  lutcks,  />/»:,  rnch 
thf  neck  n'if/i  a  rhaf>U't  <>f 
atyr.  and  <r.  . 

William  Cavendish,               Charlotte   Klix 
4th  Duke  ol  Devonshire,  K.(J.      d.   and   heii"  ol 
H.   1720.       M.    1748                    the    estates    at 
Prime  Minister,    17^6-7.            Chis\vick,  co. 
D.   1764.      liunl.  at  All  Si-.,                                   ( 
Derby 

William,                (  i)  (Jcorj^iana,  d.  ol  John,  Karl          l\i< 
<'d,  M>:                                    5th  Duke  of             Spencer.      M.   1774.      D.   f8o6.      I),  in 
-^'ira/lii'd  niiiiid              Devonshire,   K.(i.           (2)  Lady  Kli/abeth  Foster,                in 
ntxt'S  itltcniatflr             B.    >~J4^-        '  *•    1811.       widow   of  John  Thos.    l-'oster, 
Hurd.  at  All  Sts.,        Ksq.,  ami  d.  of  the  4th  Karl  of 
Derby                    Bristol.      M.   1809.      D.   1824 

Creorgiana                 Henrietta 
Dorothy,  ck!.  d.            Kli/abeth, 
15.  1783.'  I).  1858      !',.  17*5.    D.  1862 
md.  George,  6th       nul.  (iranville, 
Karl  of  Carlisle.       is(  Fa  rl  (  Iranyillr 
H.  1773.    I).  1848     H.  1773.    D.  1846 

Will.    Spencer, 
6th  Duke  of            NVilliam 
Devonshire              H.   1783 
H.   1790              Killed    1812 
I),  unnid.    1858         by  being 
lid.  at  Kdensor     thrown   out 
of  a  dog"  cart 
at  Holker 

Louisa,  d.  <>f    George  HenryCompton     Sarah, 
Cornelius,         13.1784.    D.immd  in  1809     co-hcii 
ist  Lord         Drowned  on  the  passage     Auj^. 

Lismore          home     from     Corunna  ;      I''-(|. 
D.   1863               the  transport  being          1).    iSi 
Hurd.  at          wrecked  on  the  Manacle      i  son  _> 
Kdensor               Rocks  jn  Cornwall 

(leor^e   Henry                         Richard 
md.  Louisa,   d.                         B.  1812 
ol  Henrv,                             D.unnul 
2iul  Karl  of                               '^Ti 
I  larewoi  >d 
D.  1880 
1  1  is  widow 
d.    1  880.      Had 
issue,  4  sons 
and2  daughters 
of  whom  only  i 
son  and  2 
daughters  now 
survive,  (1900) 

William             Blanche 
2nd  Earl  of      (ieor^iana 
Burlington,           d.  ol' 
7th  Duke  of         Ceortfe, 
Devon-          6th  Karl  ol 
shire,  K.(i.          Carlisle 
B.   1808             md.  1829 
D.  1891              D.  1840 
Hurd  at            Hurd.  at 
Ktlensor         Streatham 
moved  to 
Edensor 
Jan.  1892 

William,     Spencer    Compton,      Countess    Louise    Fredcrica      Kredk.  C'harles      Lucv  Caroline, 


Lord  Marquis  of  Harting-         Auguste,  d.  of  C'liarie- 
Cavendish       ton,  8th  Duke  of        Count  von  Allen, of  Hanover 
•Ide-t    son     Devonshire,   K.G. 

B.  1831  B.  1833.     M.  1892 

I ).    1834  I  V.v.  1900 


and  widow  of  William, 

yth  Duke  of  Manchester 

l'i.\:   1900 


B.  1836. 

Assassd.  in 

Pluvnix    Park, 

Dublin,   1882 
Bd.  at  l-'.densor 


d.  of 
Wm.,  4th  Loi 
Lyttelton, 
md.   1864 


Kdward 
B.  1838 
D.  1891 
liurd.  at 
Kden-or 


Victor  Christian  Wm.       Lady  Evelyn  Fitzmaurice,      Richd.     Fredk.      Lady    Moyra    de     \'ere  John  Spencer 

B.    i8(>8  "     d.  ,,'f  the  5th  B.  1871  Beauclerk,  d.  of  the  "     li-  '«75 

M.   1892  Marquis  of  Lansdowne  M.   1895  roth  I )uke  of  St.  Albans      Lieut,  ist  Life  Chiarils 


Kdward  William  Spencer     Maude  Louisa  ICmma     Blanche 
B.   1895  B.   1896  B.  1898 


l-lli/abeth 
B.   1897 


William  Francis  Kgerton    -Lady  Alice  Susan     Frederick  Greville  Egerton,  Lieut.  R.N. 

B.   1868 

Late  of  1  7th  Lancers 
M.  1894 


Francis 
B.  1896 


B.  1869.     Served  with  the  Naval  Brigade 

Osborne,  d.  of  the      of  H.M.S.  Powerful  at  Lady-mith,  Natal, 
gth  Dukeof  Leeds     where  he  died  on  3  Nov.,  1899,  of  wounds 
received  the  previous  day,  and  was  that 
same  day  promoted  to  the  rank  of 
Commander 


Blanche 
I  larriet 


Dorothy 

Charlotte 


Chri 
Mi 


Mike  of  Devonshire. 

le  (  Barone—  ( 'I  i  fiord  in  her  oxvn  right  ), 
-hard,  vd  Karl  of  Burlington.  She  brought 
lion  Abbey  and  I  .onde-borough,  co.  York, 
die-ex,  and  Li-more,  co.  \Vaierlord  into  the 
idi-h  familv.  B.  i7.;i.  D.  1754 

leorge    Augu-lu-    Henry      Klixabeth,  d.  and    h.  of  Charles.      Dorot 
>.   1754.      Created  F.arl  of  Karl  of  Northampton,  xvho  D.  171 

Burlington  and  Baron         brought    Compion     Place,    near 
fax  cndi-h  ol   Keighley,  Ka-tbonrne,   and    e-tates  in 

18^1.      I).    ,S;i  Sussex  and  Somersetshire  in  the 

Cavendish  family.       I).    |8^ 

Henry     Frederick     Compion     Frances  Susan,  widow  of  the  Hon.     CliarU-- C. 


|  I!.  Speight'-  /•/>/>,•/•  \\'li,ii->,;/,it, 
In  tare  page  307.] 


Doroihy      \V 


Vni.   I  li-nr\   <  'a\  endi-h 
3rd  Duke  of  Portland 

H.   17-^8.      M.  \-l<«> 
('I'wicc  I'rinic   .Minister) 


i.     and 

\Vm. 

kener, 

.   1 8 1 1 . 

caving 
ghter- 


(  M-neral  in  the  Armv.      B.  178 

M.P.  lor  Derby 
(Scrvi  d  in  the  Peninsula  War, 

xvounded  at  Corunna) 
D.   187-;.     Burd.  at  Fastbournc 
Had  i--ue  by   both    marriages 


Fredk.  John  Howard,  who  xxa- 
ki  lied  a  I  Waterloo,  -on  of  I-' rede  rick 
5th  Karl  of  Carli-le,  and  brother  to 

(icorge,  dlh   Karl  (.v<r  opposite) 
D.  1840,  leaving  i  -urx  i\  ing  son  bx- 
her  1-1  husband,  ^  survix-ing  -oti- 

and   t  dan.  by  her  jnd  husband 


Cliarle-  C. 

Anne 

(  'aniline 

voungc-i 

m.    Lord 

IX  num. 

-on.B.  I7<,-; 

Charles 

1867 

created  in 

Fitz- 

1858  Baron 

Rox 

Che-ham. 

Married   .V 

lell   is-ue 

Fanny 

"I-   i-V,7 
I).  |S,S5 
,--(•(1  7(1,  at 
'ompton 
Place, 
Slls-  e\. 

iurd.  at 

den-nr. 
is--ue 
ons anil .; 


1'icdei'ick John  (.'ol.   \\'illiani  Henry  l-'redei'ii  k,  of  \\'est  Stoke,  Sussex.      Lady  Kmily A.  l.anibton 
-...i  Major  the       H.  1X17.     I).  i.s.Si.     Groom-in-Waiting  to  H.M.  The       d.  of  the  ist  Earlof  Dur- 

llon.  !•'.  Ouecn.    Served  in  the  5and  Oxfordshire  Light  Infantry,       ham,  by  Lady  Louisa 

Howard,  by  and  afterwards  commanded  ihe  2nd  Derbyshire    Militia      Elixaheth,  his  jnd  \\i|r, 

Frances  Susan  (Chatsworth  Rilles).     He  inherited  estates  under  the  will 

l.anibton,    who  of  his  grandfather,  the  Earl  of   Burlington,  at    Appletre- 

nid.  jiidly  ( Ii-n.  wick,  Hawnby,  Hilton,   and    lni;-l)irchwortli,   co.    York, 

Ily.    I-',    ('omp-  and   at    Oiler-en,    Heard,    and   elsewhere   in   co.   IVrln. 
ton    Cavendish  which  lie  sold  -onie  years  before  his  death. 

(s»  oppo-ke)  Burd.  at  I'ideii.-or 


eldest  d.  of  Charles, 

_'lld   I'iai'l  (  Jrey.    K.(i. 

Prime  Minister  i.S^o-v) 

D.    iSSd 


Henry    Fredk.    Compton,      Cecil  Charles.      I',.   1X55.      S|)encer  I-'. 


late  Lieut 

i 
.  R..N. 

Major  74th  1  lighlan'd 

(Jeorge 

B.    1854.      Md 

1888  Lady 

Light  Infantry.      Md. 

1  >         .  w  «O 

1  larriet  <  >-bor 

le,  d.  of  the 

1890,  Maud  Henrietta, 

late  (  'apt. 

1  hike  of  Leeds 

I  la-  issue 

d.  ofCol.  (i.T.  Halliday 

Shropshire 

1  la-  i  —  lie 

I..  Infantry 

Kditli  Sarah  l-Ilixabelh,  d.  187 

Alice  Beatrice,  d.    1857 
Mabel  Beatrix  Caroline, 

d.  i.Sdi 

F.velyn  Fmily  (ieort^iana, 
d.   i«.si 


ouisa  Blanche 

1  loxx-ard 

elde-l  dan. 

md.  i.Xd<) 

I).  1871 


Arthur  \V.  de  B.  Sa\-ile   l-'oljambe 

B.  1870.      ('apt.  4th  Bait.  Rifle 

Brigade.      A.  IXC.   to   Lord   Lieut. 

of  Ireland,  and   was  appointed  by 

H.M.    The   Oueen    M.V.O., 

April,    iqoo 


(  Veil  d.  Sax  il<-,   Lord 

I  laxx  ke-bury,   Lieut. 

R.N.  retired.  M.P.for 

North  Noit-,    1880-5  ; 

M.P.  for  Mansfield 

Divi-ii  in  of  Not!-, 

in-Waiting  to  H.M. 
The  Oueen,    1804-5 

Annette  Frederick 

Louise,  C.  S. 

only  dan.  Foljambc 

of  the  5th  B.  and  I). 
Vi-count  1871 

Monck. 

M.   ,897 


Susan  Louisa  Cavendi-h 

eldest  daughter, 

md.    1X77 


(ieraldNV.  I  . 

S.    |-"ol;ambe. 

B.    1871. 

Lieut,   i-t 

Battn.  (4,vd) 

(  )xlord-hire 

I..  Infantry 

is  now 

serving    n 

South   Africa 

1900 


[osceline 

C.  \V.  S. 

Foljambe, 

b.   i88j. 

Robert  A.  I-!. 

St.  A.  S. 

Foljambe, 

b."  1887. 

Bertram 

M.  (  ).  S. 

Foljambe. 

b.  1891. 

X'ictor  Alex. 

Ce<-il   Savile, 

b.   1805,  to 

whom    H.M. 

The  Oueen 

stood  sponsor 


F.dith   Mai^uel 

Fmilv    Marx- 
Alice    Klheldreda 
Ceor^'iana    Marx 

Mabel  Fxclxn 
Selina  Mary 

Mai't;-aret  Susan 

Louisa  Mary, 

died  1884" 

Constance 

Blanche    Alethca 

Mary 

Rosamond  Sylvia 

Diana  Marx 

Foljambe 


3°7 

standard  of  the  doughty  Cliffords,  with  all  their  noble  alliances,  the 
very  fountains  of  English  history,  the  lustre  of  the  family  tradition* 
has  not  grown  dimmer  with  advancing  time.  Indeed,  the  house  of 
Cavendish  has  made  and  continues  to  make  our  history,  whether  in 
the  ripe  and  peaceful  scholarship  of  the  late  Duke,  or  in  the  busy 
political  life  of  his  famous  sons,  or  as  events  in  the  recent  Transvaal 
war  have  shewn,  her  children  go  forth  at  the  Nation's  call  and  dare 


THE  LATE  DUKE  OF  DEVONSHIRE. 

to  die  at  the  post  of  duty,* — their  actions  are  ever  in  the  fore-page 
of  honour,  bound  up  with  "our  rough  island  story."  Nay,  honour, 
integrity,  and  eminent  public  service  are  writ  down  the  long  family 
record,  even  from  the  days  of  the  renowned  Sir  William  Cavendish, 

"  I  allude,  ot  course,  to  the  unflinching-  heroism  of  young  Lieut.  Kgerton,  who  fell 
a  victim  to  the  enemy's  shell?,  while  g-allantly  commanding  hi-  Naval  Hatti-ry  at 
T.adysmith  early  in  November,  180x5. 


3o8 

Privy  Councillor  to  King  Henry  VIII.  to  these  of  the  present  noble 
head  of  the  house  whose  lot  it  is  to  guide  our  Nation's  destinies. 

The  late  Duke  was  himself  a  man  of  exceptional  parts,  though 
his  simple  habits  and  retiring  disposition  rather  ill  suited  him  for 
public  life.  He  was  a  student  all  his  life.  At  Cambridge  he  carried 
all  before  him  and  was  the  leading  scholar  of  his  College.  In  1829, 
at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  he  graduated  M.A.  as  Second  Wrangler 


and  Smith's  Prizeman,  and  in  1834,  the  year  of  his  elevation  to  the 
peerage,  he  took  his  LL.D.  From  1836  to  1856  he  held  the 
Chancellorship  of  the  University  of  London,  and  in  1861  he  succeeded 
the  late  Prince  Consort  as  Chancellor  of  Cambridge  University,  and 
this  position  he  continued  to  hold  until  his  death.  In  1829  he  was 
chosen  to  represent  the  University  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Two 
years  later  he  was  rejected  by  the  University,  but  was  elected  for 


3<>9 

Malton,  and  from  1832  until  his  succession  to  the  prrra^r  as  Karl  of 
Burlington  in  1834,  he  sat  for  North  Derbyshire. 

At  Bolton  Abbey  he  was  a  regular  and  familiar  visitor,  though 
he  regarded  Hollu-r  Hall,  by  the  quiet  shores  of  Morecambe  Bay,  as 
his  regular  home.  He  was  known  as  "the  good  Duke,"  and  as  a 
landlord  he  may  be  said  to  have  been  an  almost  ideal  one.  His 
extensive  estates,  in  eleven  English  counties  and  in  two  in  Ireland, 
though  always  managed  by  capable  and  experienced  stewards,  were 
under  his  own  personal  supervision,  and  he  was  always  desirous  of 
keeping  himself  in  touch  with  all  the  more  important  matters 
concerning  them.  Rents,  which  have  been  generally  low,  have 
rarely  been  interfered  with,  and  he  spent  his  money  very  freely  in 
improvements,  doing  practically  everything  that  a  tenant  required. 

There  is,  however,  another  side  to  this  part  of  our  subject. 
Tenants  we  know  are  always  complaining;  there  is  always  something 
needed,  some  addition,  alteration,  or  something  to  repair,  which 
even  the  most  generous  of  landlords  cannot  always  accede  to.  I 
remember  hearing  a  rather  amusing  story  apropos  of  this,  shewing 
how  at  least  one  Bolton  tenant  worked  round  a  difficulty.  It  appears 
that  the  Duchess  of  Devonshire  was  once  staying  at  the  Hall,  when 
one  day  she  met  a  tenant,  who  ventured  to  complain  to  her  of  the 
bad  condition  of  his  house.  "  Dear  me,"  said  her  Grace,  "  you 

should  complain  to  Mr. (the  steward)."  The  man  replied  that 

he  had  already  done  so,  but  to  no  purpose.  "  Then  I  will  mention 
your  case  to  the  Duke,"  continued  her  Grace,  blandly.  "  Ah,  my 
lady,"  observed  the  tenant,  "  the  Duke  is  in  the  steward's  hands,  and 
won't  do  anything."  "  Then,"  said  the  Duchess  firmly,  "  I  will 
punish  them  both  by  ordering  a  new  house  to  be  built  for  you." 
And  the  good  lady  kept  her  word  for  the  house  in  due  time  was 
built ! 

Of  the  present  noble  owner  of  Bolton,  it  need  only  be  said  he 
more  than  upholds  the  traditions  of  his  family  in  all  that  appertains 
to  the  welfare  of  our  hearths  and  homes.  His  life  has  been  largely 
spent  amid  the  strife  of  politics,  having  been  a  Member  of  Parliament 
since  the  age  of  twenty-three,  when  in  1857  he  was  returned  for 
North  Lancashire.  His  unbounded  generosity  in  throwing  open  the 
private  estate  of  Bolton  Woods  is  only  one  of  many  instances  of  a 
manifest  regard  for  the  health  and  pleasure  of  the  English  people. 
Though  more  than  once  has  the  threat  of  closing  this  charming 
domain  been  necessary,  it  is  however,  devoutly  to  be  hoped  that 
the  annoyances  caused  by  the  few  will  diminish,  and  that  the 
thousands  of  young  and  old,  of  hale  and  sick,  who  annually  benefit 
bv  a  visit  to  the  beautiful  historic  Abbey  and  Woods  may  continue 
to  enjoy  the  freedom  of  the  place  as  before. 

Now  that  the  railway  has  been  brought  within  a  mile  of  the 
Abbey,  without  in  any  way  interfering  with  the  charm  of  its  isolation, 


310 

and  facilities  are  offered  by  means  of  cheap  tickets  for  visiting  the 
place,  even  the  lowliest  denizens  of  such  smoke-palled  cities  as  Leeds 
and  Bradford,  may  for  a  comparatively  trifling  outlay  enjoy  something 
of  the  grandeur  of  Nature,  and  feel  all  the  better  for  communion 
however  short,  with  some  of  the  noblest  achievements  of  man. 

Of  course  it  is  not  everyone  among  the  crowds  of  admiring 
visitors  who  looks  upon  the  scene  with  an  artist's  eye  or  a  poet's 
thoughts.  For  example,  I  heard  quite  recently  of  a  couple  of  working 
women  from  a  West  Riding  town,  who  were  observed  gazing  intently 
upon  the  beautiful  and  expansive  surroundings  of  the  old  Abbey. 
Said  one  of  them  after  a  few  minutes  pause  :  "  Hah  dus  ta  like  it, 
Peggy?"  "Aye,"  responded  Peggy  with  apparent  unconcern,  "it's 
all  reight,  ye  knaw,  bud  what  a  grand  spot  for  hingin'  aht  clooathes !  " 


WEST   DOORWAY'  BOLTON   ABBEY. 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 


DESCRIPTION  OF  THK  ABBEY. 

A   neglected  approach  to  the  Abbey — A  Pilgrim'-;  Cross — Beauty  of  th'  I  hi- 

I'net    Laureate's    observations— The    ruined    choir     Norman    sculptured    stones — 
"Sermons    in    Mom:--"     Additions    in    the     i^ih    century  -The    parish    church — 
Architectural  description — The  Beamsley   Hall  chapel     Vault  tor  upright  buriaN 
Sealed  altar — Other  relics — The  tower  &c.  -The  Priorv  oven — Local  discoveries — 
A  pilgrim's  statue. 

A  river  journeyeth  past  its  ancient  wall-, 
Whereon  hoar  ivy  thrives  and  night-owls  build  ; 
It's  only  chant  is  now  a  waterfall'-, 
Which  swells  and  falls,  and  -well-  a-  it  i-  tilled 
With  music  from  the  hills.     The  cuckoo  calls 
Throughout  moist  May.     When  August  woods  are  stilled 
In  sleepy  sultriness  the  stock-dove  brood- 
Low  to  itself.     The  rest  is  solitude's.  Alfred  Austin. 

UCH  is  the  poet-laureate's  faithful  description  of  the 
surroundings  of  Bolton  Priory,  and  to  realise  the 
charm  of  its  situation  to  the  utmost  I  recommend  the 
approach  from  Embsay  (the  site  of  the  original  Priory), 
by  the  ancient  moorland  road  traversed  by  monk  and 
pilgrim. in  the  heydays  of  the  monastery.  The  road  goes  by  the  head 
of  the  romantic  Cat  Gill,  and  then  rises  to  the  well-known  Pilgrim's 
Cross,  the  socket  of  which  I  am  glad  to  say  is  still  there,  and  the 
sight  of  which  stirs  up  memories  of  other  days.  Even  as  a  lad  as  I 
passed  this  way  I  would  fancy  the  Priory  in  its  golden  prime,  the 
convent  herds  browsing  in  field  and  fell,  the  sound  of  its  bells  in  the 
summer  air,  the  far-travelled  pilgrim  with  staff  in  hand,  pausing  to 
repeat  an  Ave  Marie  by  this  time-hallowed  way-mark;  then  as  I  rose 
to  the  summit  of  the  open  road  the  dear  old  valley,  stored  with 
memories  of  childhood's  happiest  hours,  gleamed  even  as  a  vision  of 
Paradise  on  the  rapt  senses  !  Chequered  with  sunlight  and  cloud- 
shadow,  even  as  our  own  earthly  career,  rose  the  wide  spaces  of 
moorland,  with  peaceful  embowering  woodland  and  many  an  ancestral 
homestead  in  the  sheltered  meadows  below.  Well  might  memory 
revive  at  so  fair  a  scene.  In  the  words  of  Craven's  greatest  living 
poet,  William  Joseph  Gomersall,  I  might  say: 

How  oft  when  autumn  tints  thy  wood, 

In  dreams  I  climb  thy  greenest  hill, 
\nd  gaze  upon  thy  golden  flood, 

And  wish  myself  thy  nursling  still. 

Every  lane  and  wayside  in  those  days  was  a  veritable  nosegay  of 
unmolested   beautv.      Primroses   covered   every   hedgerow,  and   the 


3I2 

woods  and  lanes  were  massed  with  almost  every  kind  of  bright  or 
fragrant  posy.  The  rest  indeed  was  solitude's,  as  the  laureate  hath 
truly  phrased  it.  And  in  the  midst  of  all  this  quiet  loveliness,  a 
loveliness  in  truth  unmatched  within  the  four  shores  of  our  island, 
stand  the  crumbling  remains  of  the  stately  old  Priory  I  have  now 
to  describe. 

Let  us  cross  the  greensward  and  first  step  into  the  ruined  choir 
for  it  is  here  where  the  oldest  work  is  seen.  And  rare  suggestive 
work  it  is  too  !  Gaze  on  that  noble  east  window,  which  must  have 
been  one  of  the  glories  of  England  ;  likewise  on  that  interlaced 
arcading  above  the  monks'  stalls,  which  marks  the  transitional  move 
from  the  round-arched  Norman  to  the  Early  Pointed  style.  Even  if 
we  could  shew  no  charter,  the  design  fixes  the  date  (1140-1160)  as 
permanently  and  as  surely  as  if  it  had  been  figured  in  stone.  The 
west  portion  of  the  choir  marks  the  beginning  of  the  monks  labors 
(1151-4)  and  as  they  speedily  grew  in  wealth,  within  a  few  years  the 
choir  was  extended  eastwards.  The  two  periods  of  workmanship 
are  at  once  seen,  alike  in  the  rough  rubble  masonry  of  the  older  end 
and  the  fine  ashlar  walling  at  the  east  end,  as  well  as  in  the  method 
of  treating  the  arcade.  In  the  older  work  all  three  mouldings  are 
continued  through  the  sweep,  of  the  arch  from  west  to  east  only, 
while  in  the  later  arcading  the  uppermost  mouldings  are  continued 
in  both  directions  and  with  more  delicate  skill  across  the  intersection 
of  the  arches.  A  reference  to  the  accompanying  plate  will  shew 
what  I  mean.  Over  the  Clifford  tomb  is  a  curious  example  of 
combined  shafts  and  capitals,  very  cleverly  wrought  out  of  a  single 
block  of  stone. 

The  diverse  and  beautiful  carvings  of  some  of  the  old  Norman 
capitals  here  also  evince  a  wondrous  skill  and  taste,  considering  they 
were  fashioned  seven-and-a-half  centuries  ago,  in  the  infancy  of 
English  art.  Some  of  these  capitals,  which  have  been  excellently 
photographed  for  me  by  Mr.  Longbottom,  and  here  engraved,  look 
almost  as  fresh  and  perfect  as  when  they  left  the  sculptor's  hands, 
cut  as  they  are  in  the  durable  gritstone  of  the  neighbourhood.  They 
are  the  obvious  production  of  loving  hearts  and  minds,  undisturbed 
by  external  conflicts,  or  by  any  considerations  of  worldly  gain.  As 
we  look  up  in  admiration  at  them,  how  the  thoughts  return  to  those 
vanished  days  when  the  sculptor's  soul  had  no  greed  save  in  the 
spirit  of  excellence,  bequeathing  to  us  these  "sermons  in  stone"  to 
elevate  and  instruct  us  by  their  diverse  forms  and  beauty  and  to 
calm  our  hearts  in  this  Age  of  Stress.  And  how  all  this  contrasts 
with  the  visible  decadence  of  later  times,  notably  of  the  i6th  and 
1 7th  centuries,  or  with  the  still  more  wretched  churchwardens' 
building  of  the  succeeding  era,  when  love  of  money  rose  above  the 
purer  love  of  art. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  terrible  shock  which  the  monastery  received 


in  the  reign  of  Kdward  II,  a  shock  indeed  from  which  it  never 
recovered.  Before  that  time  happiness  and  prosperity  had  flowed 
over  the  land,  and  the  monks  made  considerable  improvements  and 
additions  to  the  conventual  buildings.  The  tottering  central  tower 
was  probably  then  taken  down,  as  these  Norman  central  towe^  as  a 
rule  were  not  very  safe.  The  narrow  Norman  lights  were  replaced 
by  the  more  elaborate  and  expansive  windows,  which  still  remain, 
though  in  ruins,  in  the  monks'  choir.  The-,e  enlargements  were 
carried  out  from  about  1290  to  1300,  as  appears  by  the  monastic 


NORMAN  CAPITALS  AND  ARCADING,  BOLTON   PRIORY. 

annals,  and  I  also  find  that  considerable  improvements  were  made 
about  the  Prior's  Chapel  in  1312.  The  upper  part  of  the  choir  was 
wholly  rebuilt  so  far  as  was  necessary  to  admit  of  the  insertion  of  the 
larger  windows.  But  the  jamb  masonry  of  the  great  east  window 
looks  original.  There  are  four  sedilia  on  the  south  side  which 
exhibit  Decorated  work.  In  the  Parish  Church  at  Skipton  there  are 
also  four  sedilia  in  the  south  wall,  but  the  easternmost  of  these  is 
recessed  not  for  a  seat,  but  for  a  side-cupboard  holding  perhaps  a 
credence  table,  where  the  bread  and  wine  were  placed  before  they 
were  consecrated. 


The  Norman  nave  of  the  church  has  disappeared,  but  happily  it 
retains  its  beautiful  Early  English  character,  as  when  first  rebuilt 
about  A.D.  1200.  The  lower  part  of  the  south  wall  with  the  whole 
of  its  western  termination  is  the  only  vestige  of  the  Norman  nave 
remaining,  and  this  is  sometimes  stated  to  be  part  of  the  original 
Saxon  Church.  But  the  thickness  of  the  wall  and  character  of  the 
mortar  are  exactly  like  those  of  the  Norman  arcading  in  the  choir. 


INTERIOR  OF  NAVE,  BOLTON   PRIORY. 

The  mortar  is  fine  and  powdery  and  must  have  been  poured  in  hot, 
quite  different  from  that  of  the  later  erections  which  adjoin  these 
earliest  buildings.  The  arcading  of  the  cloister,  formed  along  the 
outer  south  wall  of  the  nave  is  of  the  same  Transition-Norman 
character,  as  is  also  the  doorway  at  its  east  end  into  the  present 
chancel.  This  doorway  has  a  pointed  arch  resting  upon  single 
cylindrical  shafts,  having  square  abaci,  the  one  on  the  west  inside  ; 


3^5 

having  a  capital  of  the  usual  truncated  bowl  pattern,  with  plain 
mouldings  carried  down  to  the  necking,  as  in  Guiseley  church,  1151-4. 

Originally,  however,  the  church  had  no  aisle,  and  the  interior 
must  have  looked  very  narrow  and  long.  Doubtless  an  aisle  would 
have  been  added  on  the  south  side  also,  but  as  the  cloister  and 
other  buildings  were  erected  close  up  to  it,  the  wall  was  only  taken 
down  as  far  as  the  roof  of  the  cloister  outside  and  the  six  existing 
lancet  windows  were  put  in  its  place.  But  these  windows  are  only 
continued  to  the  length  of  the  cloister,  on  account  of  the  range  of 
buildings  which  came  up  to  the  west  end.  This  portion  of  the  wall 
was  therefore  not  taken  down,  and  on  the  inside  the  difference 
between  the  original  masonry  and  the  addition  is  well  seen.  Each 
of  the  windows  consists  of  two  narrow  and  lofty  lights,  transomed, 
and  alternately  divided  by  slender  circular  shafts,  and  dog-tooth 
ornament,  continued  from  the  springing  of  the  arches  down  to  about 
eighteen  inches  below  the  base  of  the  windows,  and  terminating  in 
neatly  finished  corbels  of  uniform  design.  The  windows  are  filled 
with  excellent  stained  glass  the  gift  of  the  late  Duke  of  Devonshire. 

A  foot-passage  runs  along  the  base  of  the  windows, communicating 
with  a  staircase  at  the  base  of  the  west  window,  and  giving  read) 
access  in  case  of  repairs.  The  alterations  in  the  church  seem  to 
have  been  hardly  completed  when  the  two  Decorated  windows,  each 
of  three  lights,  were  inserted  in  the  Early  English  wall  of  the  north 
aisle.  They  retain  some  interesting  fragments  of  original  painted 
glass,  and  it  is  noteworthy  that  outside  the  mullions  are  flush  with 
the  wall,  which  shews  them  to  be  early  in  the  style.  The  nave  is 
divided  from  its  aisle  by  four  large  pointed  arches  supported  by 
three  massive  columns,  the  centre  one  circular  and  the  others 
octagonal,  having  their  capitals  enriched  with  the  characteristic  dog- 
tooth ornament.  Above  is  a  clerestory  of  four  lancet  lights,  with 
alternating  delicately-cut  circular  shafts  bearing  a  profusion  of  the 
same  ornament.  This  square  four-leaved  flower,  the  centre  of  which 
projects  in  a  point,  is  a  very  noticeable  feature  of  the  decorative 
element  in  the  church  at  Bolton  Abbey,  and  is  thoroughly 
characteristic  of  the  latter  part  of  the  i2th  century,  though  it  is 
occasionally  met  with  in  late  Norman  work.  It  is  really  a 
development  of  the  Norman  nail-head  or  pyramid  ornament  cut  into 
four  leaves.  The  roof  is  pannelled  and  of  low  pitch  but  from  its 
great  elevation  gives  the  interior  of  the  church  a  very  noble  and 
imposing  appearance.  It  was  no  doubt  put  up  when  the  new  tower 
was  built  in  the  early  part  of  the  i6th  century,  and  since  then  it  has 
been  restored. 

Services  are  still  held  in  this  portion  of  the  conventual  buildings 
as  they  have  been  no  doubt  continuously  ever  since  the  foundation 
of  the  Priory,  although  in  the  time  of  Charles  II.  the  church  was 
reported  to  be  in  a  very  dilapidated  state  and  the  windows  were 


316 

boarded  up.  In  the  ritual  of  the  Austin  canons,  the  nave  of  the 
church  was  reserved  for  public  use,  while  the  choir  was  retained 
for  the  exclusive  service  of  the  canons.  In  order  that  the  two  parts 
should  be  kept  entirely  separate,  two  solid  stone  screens  were  put 
up,  one  in  the  eastern  and  the  other  in  the  western  arch  of  the  great 
central  tower.  Before  the  western  wall  stood  the  parish  altar,  in  a 
position  very  near  where  the  present  altar-rail  is  now  placed,  so  that 
there  was  a  sufficient  passage  for  processionals  behind  the  altar 


SOUTH-EAST  ANGLE  OF  CLOISTER-COURT,  BOLTON   PRIORY. 


towards  the  south  door,  leading-  into  the  cloister  and  choir.  There 
is  a  beautifully-finished  holy-water  stoup  in  the  angle  of  the  two 
door-ways,  shewn  in  the  accompanying  plate.  The  fact  that  this 
portion  of  the  conventual  church  was  kept  for  the  use  of  the  parish 
accounts  for  its  continuous  maintenance  and  preservation  while  the 
rest  ot  the  buildings  were  abandoned  and  went  to  ruin.  The 
monastic  churches  of  Howden  and  Bridlington  are  of  like  character. 


3*7 

At  Holton  the  piscina  and  stone  seats  of  the  seel  ilia  retain  their 
original  positions  in  the  south  wall. 

The  east  end  of  the  aisle  at  Holton  has  been  retained  for  a. 
chapel  by  the  owners  of  Beamsley  Hall,  though  I  cannot  find  that  a 
chantry  was  ever  endowed  therein.  A  piscina  now  in  the  north 
wall,  however,  betokens  the  presence  of  an  altar,  which  formerly 
stood  here  on  a  raised  platform.  The  organ  has  been  placed  here, 
a  memorial  to  Mr.  Cottingham,  the  Duke  of  Devonshire's  steward. 
Beneath  is  an  arched  vault  tilled  with  bones  disinterred  during  the 
restoration  in  1864  and  then  permanently  covered  in.  Here 
according  to  the  tradition,  so  energetically  preserved  by  Wordsworth 
in  the  White  Dec  <>f  A'y/sfon,  the  Mauleverers  and  Claphams,  "face  to 
face''  are  buried  upright,  like  some  of  those  old  Viking  warriors  who 
preferred  to  be  placed  in  death  as  they  had  been  in  life,  ready  to 
face  the  enemy  on  the  grand  awakening.  For  nursed  and  reared 
as  most  of  them  were,  in  fields  of  continuous  warfare  it  was  the 
conviction  of  these  poor  pagan  soldiers  that  there  must  be  enemies 
to  encounter  after  death  just  as  there  had  been  through  life.  In 
some  Irish  tumuli  opened  many  years  ago  on  the  Curragh  of 
Kildare  a  number  of  erect  skeletons  were  found,  the  bodies  evidently 
having  been  interred  with  iron  spears  in  their  hands.  At  Bolton 
the  "  oldest  inhabitant "  has  always  believed  in  the  tradition,  and  the 
old  sexton,  //  is  said,  declared  he  had  seen  the  upright  coffins  in  the 
vault,  but  this  needs  verifying,  though  in  fairness  to  this  belief  and 
as  offering  some  support  to  it,  I  ought  to  say  it  is  mentioned  as  a 
matter  of  fact  by  Dr.  Johnston  in  1670.  It  is  quite  probable  the 
coffins  with  their  contents  may  long  ago  have  collapsed  by  reason 
of  their  unnatural  positions.  There  are  some  i8th  century  brasses 
on  the  floor  of  this  chapel  commemorating  members  of  the  Morley 
family,  of  Scale  House,  Rilston,  into  whose  possession  the  Beamsley 
estate  passed  from  the  Claphams. 

Here  is  placed  what  was  doubtless  the  original  parish  altar,  a 
massive  rectangular  stone,  measuring  6  feet  5  inches  long,  2  feet  10 
inches  wide,  and  7  inches  thick.  In  the  middle  of  its  upper  surface 
is  a  slight  depression  almost  square  in  form,  16  by  17  inches,  and 
divided  across  its  centre  by  a  shallow  strip  3^  inches  wide,  the 
purpose  of  which  has  been  the  subject  of  a  good  deal  of  controversy. 
Some  contend  it  is  the  matrix  of  a  brass  laid  down  as  a  memorial 
after  the  dissolution  of  the  monastery,  while  others  hold  the  centre 
cavity  to  be  a  reliquary,  shallow  though  it  be.  I  can  see  no  objection 
to  the  latter  conclusion,  fora  "relic"  may  be  a  mere  atom,  a  finger- 
nail or  a  bit  of  dust,  and  that  this  has  been  originally  a  sealed 
altar-stone  I  think  is  proved  by  the  position  of  the  five  crosses,  four 
of  them  being  as  usual  at  the  corners  of  the  stone,  while  the  fifth 
commonly  seen  in  the  position  of  this  shallow  receptacle,  is  opposite 
it  on  the  front  edge  of  the  slab.  No  motive  can  be  adduced  for  the 


3*8 

position  of  the  central  cross  saving  that  the  stone  was  consecrated  by 
an  Archbishop,  and  not  as  was  generally  the  case  by  a  Bishop.  In 
the  annals  of  the  Abbey  recorded  in  the  last  chapter  I  have  shewn 
what  business  relations  existed  between  the  monks  and  the  Archbishop 
of  York,  who  I  have  also  explained  had  a  manor-house  and  court  at 
Otley.  It  is,  I  think,  exceedingly  probable  that  this  stone  was 
consecrated  during  one  of  the  occasions  when  the  Archbishop  was  in 
residence  at  Otley,  a  few  miles  down  the  valley. 


TOWER   ENTRANCE    BOLTON    PRIORY. 

Another  slab  here  is  interesting  as  being  the  grave-stone  of 
John,  Lord  Clifford,  who  was  made  a  Knight  of  the  Garter  in  1421, 
and  who  in  the  following  year,  being  engaged  in  the  wars  with  France, 
was  killed  at  the  siege  of  Meaux.  His  remains  were  brought  to 
Bolton  and  interred  in  the  choir  of  the  Abbey,  where  this  stone 
formerly  lay.  The  outlines  of  the  brasses  and  shields  within  the 
garter  may  still  be  observed  on  the  stone. 


The  exquisite  J^arl^  English  west  front  of  the  church,  one  of 
the  purest  examples  of  the  kind  extant,  has  in  a  great  measure 
retained  its  enrichments  uninjured  from  the  protection  it  has  received 
by  the  adjoining  later  tower.  Had  the  tower  been  completed  this 
line  original  work  would  have  been  taken  down,  in  order  to  obtain  a 
corresponding  opening  from  the  tower  into  the  nave.  The  three 
vesica  panels  over  the  entrance  are  stated  to  have  contained 
frescoes,  the  subject  of  the  centre  one  being  our  Lord  seated,  with 
angels  on  either  side,  a  very  rare  instance  of  external  painting.  (See 
the  illustration  prefacing  this  chapter.)  The  west  tower  just  mentioned 
is  an  exquisite  example  of  late  Perpendicular  masonry,,  begun  before 
the  dissolution  of  the  Abbey  and  never  completed.  Many  of  the 
stones  are  mason-marked,  and  some  examples  I  annex  ,  the  first  of 
the  illustrated  examples,  the  [hour-glass  form,  is  of  high  antiquity, 
being  found  on  the  Pyramids  of  Egypt.  It  is  to  be  seen  in  Guiseley 
Church.  Shields  of  arms  appear  above  the  doorway  and  the  following 
black-letter  inscription  is  cut  beneath  the  window  : — 
In  the  per  of  our  Cord  IttUCXX  R  ^ 

began  11  thps  fondachon  on  qu>bo  soiol  God  bauc  marcc.-  JUHtR. 
Here   is  a  curious  indication  of  the  name  of  the  last  Prior,  Richard 


MASON   MARKS  AT  BOLTON   PRIORY. 

Moone ,  it  was  however  usual  for  high  dignitaries  of  the  church  to 
assume  a  rebus  in  lieu  of  their  paternal  name,  or  even  to  drop  their 
name  altogether  and  take  perhaps  that  of  the  place  of  their  birth 
or  adoption.*  One  of  the  Priors  of  Bolton  was  a  Thomas  de  Otley, 
but  it  by  no  means  follows  that  his  real  name  was  Otley,  or  as  old 
Fuller  remarks  some  of  them,  meaning  the  distinguished  clergy, 
would  be  "mimic  Melchisidecs,"  without  father,  without  mother, 
without  descent"  (Heb.  vii.  3),  so  as  to  render  themselves  independent 
of  the  world,  without  any  coherence  to  carnal  relations."  The  date 
also  is  curious  as  it  appears  cut  in  the  stone,  and  should  be  MY1  XX., 
to  signify  1520.  Such  a  method  of  dating  to  our  eyes  looks 

Prior  Moon  left  a  will  dated  151!!  June,  1541,  ordering  his  body  to  be  buried  in 
the  parish  church  of  Catton  and  his  chalice  to  Preston  [Long  Preston]  church  "where  1 
was  born." 


320 

misleading,  but  it  was  a  common  practice  in  the  i5th  and  i6th 
centuries.  Another  example  of  the  kind  will  be  found  on  the  screen 
in  Hubberholme  Church.  The  mention  of  this  year  on  the  tower 
of  Bolton  Abbey  is  I  believe  the  oldest  date  yet  legible  on  a  building 
in  Yorkshire.  The  earliest  authentic  date,  in  Arabic  numerals  yet 
discovered  in  England,  occurs  in  the  tower  of  Heathfield  Church, 


SOUTH   TRANSEPT,  BOLTON   PRIORY. 

Sussex.  It  is  1445,  and  the  two  4's  are  like  S's  with  the  bottoms 
broken  off.  The  date  is  accompanied  by  the  initials  G.S.,  which  are 
no  doubt  those  of  the  builder. 

A  reference  to  the  accompanying  ground  plan  will  suffice  to 
indicate  the  position  of  the  various  other  buildings  and  parts  of  the 
Abbey,  which  are  all  arranged  on  the  south  side  and  are  mostly 
razed  to  the  foundations.  A  large  ash-tree  grows  in  the  middle  of 
the  chapter-house,  which  is  in  form  an  octagon,  built  according  to 
the  decorative  traces  of  its  ruined  stalls  during  the  great  restoration 


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32I 

about  1300.  Tlu-  two  transepts  had  each  an  eastern  aisle  with 
altars,  the  aisles  being  divided  by  t\vo  pointed  arches,  and  the 
windows  all  of  tin-  same  (Decorated)  date.  One  of  thrill,  shewn  ill 
the  accompanying  plate,  retains  some  of  its  beautiful  Flamboxant 
tracery.  A  good  example  of  the  masonry  and  mortar  of  this  period 
in  juxtaposition  with  that  of  the  twelfth  century  workers,  may  be 
seen  in  what  has  been  a  vestry  terminating  the  aisle  of  the  south 
transept,  where  is  part  of  an  archway  and  indications  of  the  roof  in 
the  east  wall  separating  it  from  the  Clifford  chapel  and  vault.  This 
vestry  was  no  doubt  added  when  the  Decorated  windows  were  put  in. 
The  mortar  is  very  coarse  aiicl  pebbly  and  the  stones  massive. 
A  passage  led  from  the  cloister  to  the  chapter-house,  with  the 
dormitory  above  it, while  arranged  along  the  south  side  of  the  cloister- 
court  was  the  frater,  which  as  appears  was  raised  upon  a  basement. 
At  the  south-east  corner  is  a  pointed  doorway,  which  has  a  cylindrical 
shaft  with  the  circular  base  mouldings  and  characteristic  scotia  still 
beautifully  perfect.  The  ruins  here  are  thickly  enveloped  with  ivy, 
and  there  is  little  doubt  it  conceals  a  staircase  leading  to  the 
dormitory.  As  we  stand  here  and  look  upon  its  stout  stem  and 
dense  masses  of  leaves,  the  .old  ivy  seems  to  mock  the  bygone 
greatness  of  the  holy  place,  and  pushing  its  tendrils  along  once 
cloistered  walls  and  rootless  aisles  makes  us  ponder  upon  the 
vicissitudes  and  evanescence  of  all  things  worldly.  We  picture  to 
ourselves  the  hopes  and  aspirations,  the  heavenly  longings,  the  joys, 
the  sorrows,  the  pleasures,  and  expectations,  that  moved  the  hearts 
and  thoughts  of  those  whose  span  of  life  was  passed  within  these 
sacred  walls.  We  seem  to  see  the  procession  of  monks  moving 
slowly  round  the  Abbey,  amid  the  lurid  light  of  lamp  and  torch  ; 
the  great  Crucifix  and  St.  Cuthbert's  banner  leading  the  way,  while 
one  of  those  Angel-boy's  voices  which  we  still  sometimes  hear  in 
Cathedrals,  chants  in  faultless  metre  the  grand  old  Litany,  whose 
subdued  and  solemn  cadence  is  lost  ever  and  anon  amidst  the 
response  of  the  united  choir ;  "  Ora,  ora,  pro  nobis." 

The  infirmary  buildings  are  believed  to  have  stood  between  the 
choir  and  chapter-house  and  the  river,  but  until  a  thorough  excavation 
of  the  site  is  made  nothing  definite  can  be  stated  about  them.  The 
kitchens  and  offices  lay  to  the  north  of  the  present  rectory,  which 
occupies  the  site  of  the  Prior's  lodgings.  The  Priory  oven  near  the 
kitchens  was  a  huge  concern  ;  its  great  arch,  where  oxen  or  deer 
might  have  been  roasted  whole,  was  nearly  twenty  feet  across.  A 
farmer  on  the  estate  once  lost  sixty  sheep,  and  after  considerable 
search  they  were  all  found  safely  sheltered  within  this  great  oven. 
In  front  of  the  rectory  was  the  public  guest-hall,  where  strangers 
were  received  and  entertained.  A  provision  of  mats  for  the  guest- 
house is  mentioned  in  the  compotus  for  1305.  This  building  is  well 
remembered  to  have  been  nearly  entire,  but  little  remains  now  save 


322 

the  old  chimney  stack,  forming  a  picturesque  bit  of  rockery  covered 
with  ivy  and  creepers.  It  seems  to  have  been  a  quaint  old  building 
constructed  chiefly  of  timber  and  plaster,  and  at  one  end  was  an  oak 
staircase  leading  to  an  upper  room,  where  it  is  said  Prior  Moone 
died.  In  aftertimes  Mr.  Carr,  incumbent  of  Bolton,  used  this 
chamber  for  storing  apples,  and  when  the  building  was  pulled  down 
about  1845,  tne  RCV-  Jonn  Umpleby,  who  succeeded  Mr.  Carr,  had  a 
writing-desk  made  out  of  a  stout  oak-beam  taken  from  the  chamber 
in  which  the  last  Prior  died.  He  also  had  a  table  made  out  of  some 
old  apple  trees  which  grew  within  the  enclosure  close  by.  The 
ancient  archway  across  the  road  behind  the  Hall,  which  is  a  favorite 
subject  with  artists,  is  the  remains  of  the  priory  aqueduct,  destroyed 
by  the  Scots  after  Bannockburn,  and  which  was  used  to  convey  water 
to  the  wheel  which  turned  the  mill.  Near  here  were  the  priory 
fish-ponds.  Beside  the  great  gateway,  now  the  Hall,  there  grew  a 
magnificent  oak-tree,  known  as  the  "Prior's  Oak,"  which  was  cut 
down  in  1720  (probably  when  the  gateway  was  converted  into  a 
residence)  and  the  sale  of  the  timber  realised  ^70.*  The  monastic 
poultry-houses  and  probably  the  dove-cote,  mentioned  in  ancient 
annals,  appear  to  have  stood  on  the  site  of  the  estate-office  and 
residence,  and  these  old  buildings  within  living  memory  were  called 
Overhouses. 

Hitherto  few  relics  of  antiquity  have  been  found  about  the 
Abbey  ruins.  Dr.  Johnston  in  1670  noticed  a  statue  of  Lady 
Romille,  the  foundress,  in  the  church,  but  this  has  long  been  lost. 
A  very  good  example  of  an  Agnus  Dei  is  preserved  on  the  outside  of 
the  vestry  screen  in  the  church.  The  rector  has  some  fragments  of 
ancient  tiles,  also  a  small  playing-marble  incised  with  the  sacred 
cross,  and  a  small  glazed  earthen  vessel  that  may  have  been  a  table-salt, 
which  was  found  during  excavations  in  the  choir.  A  brass  coin-shaped 
object  was  also  found,  which  seems  to  have  been  used  as  a  pass  from 
one  monastery  to  another.  It  is  interesting  to  note  the  statue  of  a 
pilgrim  cut  in  stone  and  erected  above  a  contemporary  sun-dial  on  a 
buttress  on  the  south  side  of  the  tower.  He  is  represented  with  head 
uncovered,  carrying  a  broad  flat  hat  under  the  left  arm  and  holding 
a  staff  in  the  right  hand.  On  the  breast  is  a  cross,  fleury  (being  the 
arms  of  the  monastery),  that  is  each  arm  terminates  in  three  points, 
symbolical  (like  the  steps  of  the  Calvary)  of  the  three  Virtues,  "Faith, 
Hope,  and  Charity."  The  pilgrim  here  appropriately  enough  stands 
above  the  hour-dial,  and  near  the  entrance  to  the  holy  fane  of  the 
Graces,  seeming  to:  say,  "Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  are  weary  and 
heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest." 

*  The  warden  of  the  Priory  gates  is  mentioned  in  a  writ  dated  1274-5,  whereby  it 
appears  that  from  the  time  of  the  foundation  of  the  Priory  the  lords  of  Albemarle  when 
the  office  of  Prior  was  vacant  had  only  one  custodian  of  the  g-ates  of  the  Priory  who  had 
to  defend  the  house  from  all  enemies.  Inq.  p.m.  3rd  Edw.  I. 


CMA1TKR     XXV. 


MARTON  :    A  LONG-LOST  RELIGIOUS  Hoi 

Local   references  to   Marlon    Priory     The   Bolton   monks'   land   at   Marton   in   Craven 
The  Priory  of  Marton  in  Cleveland — Records  at  Bolton  Abbey— -Discoveries  on  tin- 
site   of  Ingthorpe   Grange   -Was   tin-re  a  dependent   cell   to   Bolton  at   Marton? — 
Situation    of   the    religious    house --Old    monastic    orchard  --Family    of    Baldwin 
Description  of  Ingthorpc  Grange. 

-'  M()NG  the  archives  at  Bolton  Abbey  are  many 
references  to  "  Marton  Priory,"  and  to  a  long-lost 
dependent  house  or  cell  at  Marton,  in  Craven,  of 
which  Whitaker,  in  the  History  of  Craven  (page  90,  3rd 
ed.)  observes  nothing  is  known,  nor  do  Dugdale  and 
Burton  give  any  record  of  it,  saving  that  the  monks  of  Bolton  had 
an  estate  and  the  mill  at  Marton.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this 
refers  to  Marton  in  Craven,  and  that  the  estate  was  situated  at 
Ingthorpe,  now  a  separate  township  in  that  picturesque  and  historic 
old  parish.  Some  part  of  this  estate  was  originally  held  by  the  Prior 
of  Bolton  on  condition  of  his  burning  two  candles  before  the  high 
altar  at  Bolton.  When  the  cell  or  subservient  house — for  there  seems 
to  have  been  something  more  than  a  grange — was  established  at 
Marton  we  have  no  knowledge,  but  as  there  was  a  Priory  of  the 
same  name  in  Galtres  in  the  archdeaconry  of  Cleveland,  it  is  possible 
that  confusion  may  exist  in  regard  to  the  two  places  in  early  grants. 
The  house  at  Marton  in  Cleveland  was  of  the  foundation  of 
Bertram  de  Bulmer,  whose  arms,  gules  billettee  a  lion  rampant,  or, 
were  also  those  of  the  Priory.  No  remains  of  the  house  now  exist. 
It  is  said  to  have  been  endowed  with  lands  in  Bulmer,  Flaxton, 
Sutton  in  Galtres,  Lilling,  Marton,  Molesby,  Burnsall,  Woodhouse 
(Appletrewick)  Cracoe  and  Thorpe  in  Craven,  &c.  Among  the 
muniments  at  Bolton  Abbey  I  find  the  following  original  grant. 

To  all  to  whom  this  charter  &c.  I.  Kustachius  de  Rilleston,  greeting'  &c.  confirm 
to  God  and  the  Blessed  Mary  of  Marton,  and  the  Canons  serving  God  there,  in  free  and 
perpetual  alms  &c.  two  borates  of  land  in  the  territory  of  Crackehou.  Witnesses,  John 
de  Kston,  Will.  Grandorge,  Ran'  de  Otterburn,  Godfrey  de  Altaripa,  Will,  dc  Cuglay, 
Will,  de  Hertlington,  Gilbert  de  Ilybern  [Heber?]  Henry  de  Flvetham,  and  others. 

Nearly  all  these  witnesses  were  Craven  men  of  position  ;  only 
the  last  named  seems  to  be  connected  with  Embleton,  anciently 
Elmeton,  in  the  parish  of  Sedgefield,  Durham.  William  de 
Hertlington  died  in  1292.  The  Altaripas  intermarried  with  the 
ancient  family  of  Marton,  and  in  1318  Godfrey  de  Altaripa  had 
license  to  castellate  his  manor-house  at  Elslack  in  Craven.  Whether 


324 

the  signatory,  Gilbert  de  Hybern  is  a  form  of  Hibernia  or  of  Heber, 
sometimes  written  Hyber  and  Hayber,  descendants  of  the  Domesday 
lords  of  Marton  in  Craven,  there  is  no  evidence  to  shew.  The  arms 
of  Heber  were,  however,  not  unlike  those  of  Cleveland  Priory  :  viz  : 
a  fess  with  lion  rampant,  or,  in  the  dexter  chief  point  a  cinquefoil  arg. 
Saving  appearances  of  foundations  on  the  south  side  of  the  iyth 
century  house,  now  known  as  Ingthorpe  Grange,  nothing  remains  of 
the  old  priory-cell,  or  chapel,  or  whatever  it  may  have  been,  in  this 
beautiful  and  retired  spot  in  the  heart  of  rural  Craven.  But  Whitaker 
mentions  that  in  his  day  (a  century  ago)  there  was  found  here  a 
mutilated  basso-relievo  in  white  marble,  the  subject  of  which  seems  to 
have  been  the  Apprehension  of  Christ  and  Peter  drawing  his  sword, 
a  species  of  ornament  that  was  formerly  used  as  a  kind  of  frieze  at 
the  back  of  altars.  From  the  appended  engraving  it  appears  to 
be  of  early  i4th  century  date.  This  relic  of  local  monasticism 
unfortunately  is  now  lost.  Many  items  of  expenditure  occur  in  the 
Priory  accounts  of  Bolton  concerning  their  possession  at  Marton,  and 
in  the  coinpoius,  before  mentioned,  for  1610  I  find  also  this  entry  : 

Allowance  made  to  the  accountants  for  lands  in  Woodhouse  and  Appletrewyk,  late 
parcel  of  the  Priory  of  Marton. 

It  has  doubtless  reference  to  the  grant  stated  to  have  been  made  by 
Henry  de  Neville  of  his  manor  of  Woodhouse,  near  Appletrewick,  to 
the  Priory  of  Marton,  in  Cleveland.  The  canons  of  Bolton  had  the 
manor  of  Appletrewick,  and,  singularly,  the  Nevilles  were  patrons  of 
both  houses. 

I  should  not  have  broached  these  additions  to  the  already 
lengthy  records  of  Bolton,  had  not  these  peculiarities  presented 
themselves,  as  Marton  is  not  within  the  province  of  the  Wharfe,  but 
lies  five  miles  west  of  Skipton  and  twelve  from  Bolton  Abbey.  But 
the  place  being  little  known  to  the  outside  world,  I  may  continue 
this  account  of  it. 

Lovely,  indeed,  is  the  situation  of  this  long-vanished  religious 
house  among  the  green  hills  of  Craven.  From  East  Marton  an  old- 
fashioned  posy-banked  lane,  full  of  the  scent  of  hawthorn  in  the 
spring  and  the  bloom  of  wild-roses  in  summer,  winds  for  about  a  mile 
down  to  the  sweet  sequestered  vale  where  the  old  monks  dwelt.  No 
one  seems  ever  to  have  noticed  the  chosen  spot,  or  to  have  penned  a 
line  about  it.  The  house  which  for  the  last  two  and  a  quarter  centuries 
has  stood  upon  the  site  has  very  likely  been  erected  out  of  the  old 
monastic  ruins.*  An  ancient  orchard  lies  on  the  south  side  of  it, 
where  many  an  aged  apple-tree  still  bears  fruit  of  such  peculiar  form 
and  flavor  that  no  one  can  name  it.  Descendants  they  are,  no  doubt, 
of  the  old  imported  stock  planted  here  perhaps  as  long  ago  as  the  era 

*  I  am  informed  that  the  old  house  was  sketched  by  the  celebrated  artist,  Peter  de 
Wint,  during  one  of  his  tours  in  Yorkshire. 


325 

of  the  Crusades  .  at  any  rate  the  monks  had  fish-ponds  at  Marlon  in 
the  time  of  Henry  II.  The  venerable  yews  hen-  too,  have  probably 
yielded  many  a  bow  shaft  for  the  Marlon  men  who  marched  behind 
the  "Shepherd  Lord"  to  Hodden  Field,  while  in  later  times  archery 
was  still  largely  practised  in  Craven,  and  some  say  that  yew-bows 
were  used  even  during  the  great  Cavil  War.  And  good  execution 
they  did  withal,  for  there  were  men  like  Shallow's  friend,  old  Double 
who  "  would  have  clapped  the  clout  a  twelve  score,  and  carried  you 
a  forehand  shaft  a  fourteen  and  fourteen  and  a  half  that  it  would 
have  done  a  man's  heart  good  to  see." 

This  manor  of  Ingthorpe,  Ungthorpe,  or  Crake  End  as  it  is 
variously  described,  formed  part  of  the  monastic  estates  purchased 
by  Henry  Clifford,  Earl  of  Cumberland  in  1542.  Three  years  later 
it  was  granted  by  lease  for  a  term  of  300  years,  with  a  covenant  to 
renew  for  300  years  more,  to  Anthony  Baldwin  and  his  mother.  For 
more  than  300  years  the  Baldwins  resided  here,  and  their  descendants 
though  no  longer  at  Ingthorpe,  are  still  in  being.  There  i>  a  pedigree 
of  the  family  in  Burke's  Landed  Gentry  which  is  correct  as  to  the 
Ingthorpe  branch,  with  the  exception  that  "(3)  William,  to  whom  his 
father  assigned  (1592)  a  fourth  part  of  Newsholme,"  should  be  a 
fourth  part  of  Ingthorpe.  From  1483  to  Anthony  Baldwin  will  be 
found  in  Burke,  and  the  remainder  of  the  Ingthorpe  branch  is 
presented  in  the  following  new  pedigree.  Hugh  Baldwin,  Anthoin's 
second  son,  had  Ingthorpe  settled  upon  him  by  his  uncle  John,  the 
eldest  nephew,  John  being  otherwise  provided  for. 

The  house  is  a  roomy  old  building  of  three  stories  with  ample 
mullion-windows.  Over  the  massive  oak  pegged  east  door  is  a 
triangular  stone  inscribed  "John  Baldwen  Birth  was  1671,"  while  on 
a  panel  below  are  the  initials  B.  H.  B.  and  date  1672,  standing  for 
Hugh  and  Barbara  Baldwin,  the  builders  of  the  house.  It  seems  that 
formerly  the  name  was  spelled  Baldwin,  and  an  /  has  taken  the  place 
of  e  sometime  last  century.  There  are  good  reasons  for  believing 
that  the  Bawdwens  of  Stone  Gap,  Cononley,  were  of  the  same  stock. 
The  name  Baldwynhill,  now  Bawdlands  in  the  parish  of  Mitton,  occurs 
in  a  charter  of  Roger  de  Lacy  of  the  time  of  King  John.  The  name 
was  spelled  and  pronounced  both  ways. 

Mr.  John  Barton  Baldwin,  who  died  in  1856,  was  I  believe,  the 
last  to  reside  at  Ingthorpe,  and  he  cut  off  the  entail  and  sold  the 
property  to  his  cousin  Mr.  Richard  Roundell,  of  Gledstone  in  the 
parish  of  Marton  in  Craven,  with  whose  family  it  remains.  His 
eldest  son,  the  Rev.  John  Richard  Baldwin,  Indian  Chaplain,  has 
some  interesting  family  relics,  portraits,  etc.,  including  a  receipt 
signed  by  Wentworth,  the  unfortunate  Earl  of  Strafford,  for  a  fine 
imposed  on  William  Baldwen  of  Ingthorpe,  in  1630,  for  not  attending 
and  receiving  the  order  of  Knighthood  at  his  Majesty's  coronation. 


Pedigree  of  Baldwin,  of  Instborpe. 


Anthony  Baldwin 

of  Cononley  and 

Woodside 


John, 
of  Cononley, 
(eldest  son) 

Hugh,  of  Ingthorpe.    = 
Rebuilt  Ingthorpe  1672. 
Buried  18  July,  1692. 
Interred  at  Woodside 
with  his  younger  brother 

1 
-Barbara,     d. 
of  Nicholas 
Stead,  of  Idle 

1 
William    Anthony 
of       of  Marlon, 
Smithies       etc. 
Bridge 

John, —Ellen,  dau. of  Hugh  Anthony  Thomas    Nicholas  Mary    William,        Elizabeth 


born           Anthony 

living  in    living  in    living  in                        of 

Blakey,  ol 

1671            Hartley, 

London  Bradford    London               Ingthorpe 

Bradford 

5  Feb.  ,  1  705-6                    1  709 

1708            1709                          and 

(.See  Whitaker's  Craven. 

Bradford 

Hartley 

|v  digrec.) 

John,          Ellen,    dau.   of  Wm.  William,    Barbara 

Henry      Elizabeth 

Henr}' 

of              J= 

awley 

ofMartoo.by       died 

Hindley, 

Howard, 

Ingthorpe      / 

dice,  d.  of  Anthony    without 

of  Man- 

ot Man- 

Hartley.    (.See 

issue 

chester 

chester 

Whitaker's  Craven. 

Hartley  pedigree.) 

John,  of  Ingthorpe- 
and  Preston,  M.D. 

-Dorothy,  d.          Bar 
of  Francis               K 

bara          Thomas                Alice 
Chippendall             Bapt. 

Edmund 
Benson, 

Born  29  Jan. 

'734 

lies,  of 

26  Oct.    1732         s 

p.                 26  Aug.  , 

of 

D.  June  15, 

1704 

Knaresbro 

D 

170 

'735 

Halton 

1 
Dorothy 

1 
Ellen               Jo 

in,        =Mary,  dau.  of  Henry     Barbara 

Frai 

ices 

B.  April, 

B.  April,     of  Ingthorpe 

Barton,  of  Swinton           Born       B.  Sep.  17, 

'7°3 

1764             solic 

itor. 

and  Ward  Hall,  Lanes       i  Sep., 

1767 

Md. 

B.  3  July, 

(See  Barton,  of  Staple-         1766 

ob. 

s.  p. 

Mitchell        1765. 

M. 

ton  Park. 

Burke's 

'793 

8  Sep 

•.  '791 

landed  Gentry.) 

John   Barton 

Emma,    dau. 

Brands 

Henry     Wi 

Ham    Richard     George 

Frances 

Baldwin 

of  Major        B.  July 

B.  May     B. 

Feb.     B.  June    B.   Aug. 

B.  Oct. 

B.  Nov.  21,  179 

6          Charles        18,    1798 

3,  1800    14, 

1803  13,    1810  10,    1812 

4,  1814. 

M.  1825 

Bacon,  of      D.  May 

D.  Feb.     ob 

s  p.    ob.  s.  p.    ob.  s.  p. 

ob.  s.  p. 

D.  Nov.  4,  18; 

6          Skipton 

7,  1802 

i 

7,    1821 

Dec.  28, 

(He  sold 

(gth  Lancers) 

s.  p. 

1841 

Ingthorpe) 

Rev.   John 

1 
Frances           Francis 

Emilv 

Charles 

Mary,  dau.  of 

Richard,  of 

B. 

Feb.  28,    B. 

April  15, 

B.  Oct.  26, 

B.  April    24, 

C.  Lutyens, 

East  Barton 

'833 

•835 

1839 

1830 

Deputy 

B.  27  Sep., 

D.  Oct.  17, 

Commissary 

1897 

General 

I 

Hon.   Canon 

Katharine        Emily 
md.  W.       B.  1856 
Harding  Md.  Rev. 

R.-v.   John  Marv  Dorothy     Hugh        of  Newcastle 
B.  18^8     B.  1862  B.  i1  64      B.  186^       J-1'-  North- 
A.                                                      md.  d.  of      umbel-land, 

W 

ickhan 

i 

—  Leec 

h.  of            V  icar 

Rathkeale    Berwick-on- 

Abbev.            Tweed 

Linv 

.,-iVk         1880-1896 

Rev.   Hugh  C. 

Rev.    Alan 

Rev.  Charles 

Rev.  Arthur 

Gerard 

Mary 

B.  27  July,  1856 

B.  29  Dec., 

B.  23  April, 

B.  i  Dec.,  1860 

B.  24  Jan. 

B.  25  Aug. 

Rector  of 

1857.    Md. 

1859 

Rector  of 

1868 

1872 

Moreleigh, 

Margaret 

Middle  Chinnock. 

Devon.      Md. 

Grossman 

Md.  Millicent 

Julia  Foxe 

(has  issue) 

1  lowey  (has  issue) 

CHAPTER     XXVI. 


AROUND    BKAMSI.KV. 

Picturesque  aspects  Local  families  Manor  of  Beamsley  The  ('laphanis  Beamsley 
Hall  Risphill  and  Gibbetcr  Troubles  of  the  Reformation  Beanislev  Hospital — 
Ancient  terry-house  Bolton  Bridge  Old  Roads. 

!  how  delightful  are  the  quiet  shades  of  Beamsley  on 
a  still  summer's  day  !  Nothing  seems  to  disturb  the 
wonted  tranquillity  of  the  place  save  the  murmur  of 
bees,  the  music  of  birds,  and  the  mellowed  laughter  of 
the  fresh  rivulet  leaping  child-like  athwart  the  village 
from  its  cradle  on  the  moors.  The  rustic  houses  with  their  posied 
gardens  stand  anywise  beside  the  road,  while  the  unmolested 
songsters  from  field  and  grove  hop  in  at  the  open  doors,  conscious 
of  the  frugal  fare  that  awaits  their  temerity  on  table-top  or  chair.* 
What  happy  memories  of  freedom  and  of  innocence  such  pleasant 
scenes  awake  !  Boyhood's  days  are  once  more  recalled  when  about 
the  old  ancestral,  domains  the  rhyme  used  to  be  sung  :  — 

HIT  diddle,  diddle,  the  cat  and  the  fiddle, 
The  cow  jumped  over  the  Mnnii. 

as  a  parody  on  some  old  family  names,  yet  the  Heys  never  got  the 
best  of  the  Moons,  although  the  several  old  local  families  of  Hey, 
Moon,  Petyt,  and  Moorhouse  have  intermarried  time  after  time. 
The  Heys  are  an  old  race  of  wheelwrights,  who  lived  in  a  thatched 
house  that  stood  here  up  to  1875,  an(^  'ts  'U1£e  oak-crocks  that 
supported  the  well-seasoned  cross-rafters  of  the  heavily-turfed  roof, 
were  I  should  say  planted  as  long  ago  as  the  days  of  strife  between 
the  White  Rose  and  the  Red.  I  present  a  picture  of  the  vanished 
homestead  (see  next  page),  shewing  old  Joseph  busy  at  his  work,  a 
work  that  is  still  carried  on  by  his  son,  George  Hey.  The  smaller 
house  near  it  was  also  a  very  old  building,  which  had  evidently  been 
restored,  and  was  dated  1675. 

The  life  of  an  estate  is  not  wholly  made  up  of  the  doings  of  its 
nobles  or  lords,  else  our  records  would  be  largely  foreign  to  the  soil 
and  kindred  they  concern.  They  would  have  to  chronicle  the 
achievements,  the  victories  and  defeats  of  the  great  owners  who 
spent  much  of  their  time  abroad,  and  whose  bleeding  bodies  some 

Happy  is  Beamsley,  too,  in  its  liquid  refreshment,  for  no  purer  spring' is  to  be 
found  through  all  Kngland,  and  so  copious  is  the  supply  that  in  the  driest  season  it  has 
never  known  to  fail.  The  good  folk  respect  their  precious  spring  and  call  the  place 
from  which  it  issues  "Moses'  Rock." 


tinu's  brought,  a>  \ve  have  seen  in  the  records  of  Bolton  Abbey,  to 
find  a  last  resting-place  in  the  home-land  of  their  love  and  pride. 

Such  were  some  of  the  early  lords  of  Beamsley,  who  dwelt  at 
Beamsley  Hall,  which,  long  ago  rebuilt,  still  stands  amidst  ancestral 
trees,  a  memorial  of  those  warlike  days.  A  fortified  house  existed 
here  probably  in  the  century  following  the  Conquest,  when  the 
manor  was  granted  by  Romille  to  Helte  Mauleverer,  in  1175,  twenty 
years  after  the  Priory  arose  at  Bolton.  There  is  a  tradition  that  a 
part  of  the  old  house  was  often  resorted  to  by  pilgrims  and  such 
guests  who  were  unable  to  obtain  accommodation  at  the  monastery. 
But  the  present  mansion  is  all  of  post-Reformation  date,  and  we  have 
no  records  to  support  the  tradition. 

With  the  Mauleverers  the  house  and  estate  remained  till  the  reign 
of  Edward  III.,  when  by  marriage  it  passed  into  the  hands  of  Sir 
Thomas  Clapham,  of  the  ancient  family  of  Clapham  elsewhere 
mentioned,  who  are  supposed  to  derive  their  patronym  from  Osgod 
C'lapha,  a  wealthy  thane  and  fast  friend  of  King  Harthacanute. 
He  held  the  high  office  of  staller,  or  Master  of  the  Horse,  and  was 
one  of  the  most  constant  witnesses  to  the  King's  charters.  His 
sudden  fall  in  1046  created  a  great  sensation  and  every  chronicler 
notices  his  banishment.* 

The  eldest  son  of  the  first  proprietor  of  Beamsley  of  this  name 
was  John  de  Clapham,  whom  Wordsworth  describes  as 

That  fierce  esquire, 
A  valiant  man,  and  a  name  of  dread, 
In  the  ruthless  wars  of  the  White  and  Red, 
Who  dragged  Earl  Pembroke  from  Banbury  Church, 
And  smote  off  his  head  on  the  stones  of  the  porch. 

There  can  however  be  little  doubt  that  the  Earl  and  his  brother  were 
executed  two  days  after  the  battle  of  Danesmoor  in  1468,  in  which 
John  de  Clapham  took  a  victorious  part.  The  family  continued 
at  Beamsley  till  the  time  of  Sir  Chris.  Clapham,  temp.  Charles  II, 
lord  of  the  manor  of  Wakefield,  the- arms  of  which  town  are  the  six 
fleurs-de-lis  of  Clapham.  His  daughter  Margaret,  married  Sir  Wm. 
Craven,  of  Appletrewick,  father  of  the  second  Baron  Craven,  and 
nephew  of  Sir  Wm.  Craven  who  married  Mary,  daughter  of 
Ferdinando,  Lord  Fairfax,  leader  of  the  Parliamentary  forces  in  the 
Civil  War.f  About  the  year  1700  the  estate  passed  by  purchase  to 
the  Morley  family  of  Scale  House,  Rilston,  and  Wennington,  with 
whose  descendants  it  remained  until  1831  when  it  was  sold  to  the 

*  See  Ramsay's  Foundations  of  England,  pp.  442-3. 

f  For  Pedigree  of  Clapham,  of  Beamsley,  see  Dugdale's  Visit,  of  Yorks  p.  12. 
Whitaker  mentions  that  a  pedigree  of  the  Claph.-mis  was  in  one  of  the  windows  of 
Hollin  Hall,  near  Beamsley,  but  I  presume  it  should  be  Hollin  Hall  in  the  township  of 
Rathmell,  near  Settle,  an  old  property  of  the  ftjorleys.  The  window  was  probably 
removed  thither  from  Beamsley. 


33° 

Duke  of  Devonshire  and  now  forms  part  of  the  Bolton  Abbey 
estates. 

The  Hall  contains  a  fine  oak-panelled  room,  with  two  shields 
of  arms,  quarterly  (i)  Clapham  (2)  Thornton  (3)  Mauleverer  (4) 
Otterburne.  On  a  third  appear  the  same  arms  with  those  of  Moore 
and  Sutton.  The  greater  part  of  the  house  is  modern,  but  the 
cellars  are  very  old  and  have  arched  roofs.  The  house  stands  on  a 
large  glacial  mound  and  is  surrounded  with  pleasant  gardens  and  an 
orchard,  and  there  still  remain  traces  of  an  extensive  moat  on  the 
south  side.  In  the  grounds  are  several  notable  trees,  including  a 
fine  medlar. 

Beamsley  gave  name  to  an  ancient  family,  and  there  is  a  charter 
among  the  Hemingway  MSS  confirming  the  gift  of  a  toft  and 
building  at  Rispil,  which  is  witnessed  by  Sir  Wm.  Mauleverer, 
Nicholas  de  Bemeslay  and  Peter  his  brother.  This  shews  there  was 
a  house  at  Risphill  in  the  i3th  century.  Above  Risphill  is  another 
old  house  called  Gibbeter,  a  name  suggestive  enough,  though  in  the 
Bolton  Abbey  registers  it  is  sometimes  spelled  Jubiter.  Mons.  Perlin, 
an  eye-witness  of  the  Reformation  miseries  says  that  the  great  lords 
had  the  poor  privilege  of  dying  by  the  axe,  while  the  wooden  gibbet 
did  its  work  upon  the  common  people.  The  only  record  of  a  local 
martyr  I  can  find  is  the  case  of  Richard  Horner,  of  Bolton  Bridge, 
who,  however,  appears  to  have  been  taken  to  York  and  there  suffered 
"with  great  courage  and  constancy,"  Sep.  4th  1598.* 

One  of  the  effects  of  the  Reformation  was  the  founding  of  the 
Beamsley  Hospital,  a  curious  little  building  still  existing  on  the 
Blubberhousesf  and  Harrogate  road.  An  old  inscription  over  the 
gateway  informs  us  : 

This  almeshouse  was  founded  by  that  excellent  Lady  Margaret  Russell,  Countesse 
of  Cumberland,  wife  of  George  Clifford,  third  Earl  of  Cumberland,  1593,  and  was  more 
perfectly  finished  by  her  only  child,  the  Lady  Anne  Clifford,  Countess  Dowager  of 
Pembroke,  Dorsett,  and  Montgomery.  God's  name  be  praised. 

*  When  the  Reformation  rebellions  were  quashed  the  King  commanded  "such 
dreadful  execution  to  be  done  upon  a  good  number  of  inhabitants  in  every  town, 
village,  and  hamlet,"  whereupon  more  than  70,000  persons  were  publicly  executed, 
gibbets  being  hurriedly  set  up  all  over  the  country,  a  terrible  massacre  indeed  out  of  a 
total  population  of  under  4,000,000.  Where  the  remains  of  the  old  fortalice  of  the 
Cliffords  stand  on  the  edge  of  the  moor  opposite  Norton  Tower,  is  called  Gallows  Hill, 
and  has  apparently  nothing  to  do  with  the  rocky  crevasse  known  as  "  Deer  Gallows." 

f  Blubberhouses  is  an  old  estate  of  the  family  of  Lord  Walsingham,  the  expert 
grouse-shot,  who  has  a  Shooting  Lodge  here.  The  curious  name  may  be  derived  from 
the  A.-S.  verb  to  blow,  bidivan,  p.  bleoK),  s.  bloma,  a  mass  of  metal,  hence  the  beorh  or 
hill  of  the  ore-blowers.  There  are  remains  of  ancient  bloomeries  on  the  moor.  In 
3oth  Edw.  I.,  I  find  the  name  written  Bloberhuses  ;  and  in  a  charter  granted  to  the 
Priory  of  Bridlington,  John,  son  of  John  de  Walkingham,  gave  leave  to  the  canons  to 
dig  iron-ore  and  make  forges  within  the  territroy  of  Blubberhous,  and  Robert  son  of 
Huntobrith  of  Killinghall,  Robert  de  Staneley  and  Henry  Turpin,  also  of  Killinghall, 
did  the  same. 


33 ! 

It  is  a  circular  building  about,  thirty  feet  in  diameter,  the  walls  being 
i)f  rough  rubble  masonry,  and  the  windows,  now  modernized,  were 
formerly  leaded.  The  centre  is  taken  up  with  a  small  chapel,  lighted 
from  the  roof,  while  seven  cosy  rooms  radiate  from  it,  each  occupied 
by  a  worthy  dame,  one  of  whom  acts  as  superintendent  or  'mother' 
of  the  house.  There  are  also  six  other  cottages  near.  The  property 
is  attached  to  Skipton  Castle,  and  its  revenues  now  amount  to  about 
^360  per  annum.  In  the  Skipton  burial  registers  for  Feb.  26th 
1707-8  I  find  this  entry  : 

Margaret  ( iood^ion,  widow  of  Henry  ( iood^ion,  laic  of  Skipton,  she  was  <)j   year- 
old,  and  for  years  la-t  past  was  (iovenie-se  or  Mother  of  ye  Widows  at    Beam-ley 

llii-pital,  in  which  place  she  behaved  herself  with  much  prudence  and  discretion. 

Had  we  the  recollections  of  this  good  woman,  doubtless  many  a 
forgotten  episode  of  the  troublous  days  of  the  Reformation  would 
be  retrieved. 

An  interesting  relic  of  this  age  is  preserved  in  an  old  cottage  close 
to  the  Abbey  side  of  Bolton  Bridge.  Formerly  it  was  the  ferryman's 
house  and  there  must  have  been  a  chapel  attached  from  which  the 
following  inscription  was  removed  when  the  house  was  rebuilt — 

Choti  pat  passps  by  ys  wap, 
One  flue  marc  here  thou'l  sap 

being  cut  in  black-letter  upon  an  oak-beam,  which  originally  faced 
the  front  entrance.  The  ground-floors  of  the  cottage  then  consisted 
of  a  single  room,  but  forty  years  ago  some  alterations  were  made  and 
the  beam  was  removed  to  its  present  position,  the  oak-panelled 
partition  however,  against  which  it  was  placed  was  then  also  taken 
clown  and  a  lath  and  plaster  wall  erected  instead.  The  house  is 
built  largely  of  river-cobbles  and  has  a  flat-headed  doorway  of  simple 
mouldings. 

Though  a  bridge  is  recorded  in  the  Abbey  annals  to  have  been 
built  here  shortly  before  the  invasion  of  the  Scots  in  1318,  and  is 
also  shewn  as  existing  on  Saxon's  map  (1577),  the  place  was  long 
without  any  means  of  passage  save  by  boat  or  on  horseback.  The 
pack-horses  from  Addingham  came  by  the  present  old  road  as  far  as 
the  toll-bar,  and  then  crossing  the  river  they  followed  the  track  to  the 
foot  of  Storiths  Crag,  and  so  over  Hazlevvood  Moor  to  West  Knd 
and  Pateley  Bridge.  The  drovers  from  Skipton  travelled  the  narrow 
and  picturesque  green  lane  from  Draughton  (what  a  quagmire  this 
must  have  been  in  winter!)  which  emerges  opposite  the  Devonshire 
Anns,  and  taking  an  old  road  a.  short  distance  in  front  of  the  rectory, 
they  crossed  the  Wharfe  and  ascending  the  bank,  joined  the  main 
route  at  Storiths  Crag,  as  above. 

The  old  coach  road  from  Skipton  by  Close  House  also  came  by 
way  of  Draughton  and  the  narrow  lane  opposite  the  hotel,  just 
mentioned,  then  veering  to  the  right  to  the  toll-bar  house  and  over 
the  bridge  to  Knaresbro'.  The  original  coach  road,  however,  did 


332 

not  as  now  go  past  Beamsley  Hospital,  but  took  more  to  the  right 
through  the  fields  on  this  side  of  Beamsley  Hall,  and  climbed  the 
bank  in  close  proximity  to  Kex  Beck.*  There  are  two  stout 
gate-posts  in  the  field  opposite  the  bar-house,  which  formerly  stood 
in  the  present  highway,  one  doing  duty  for  the  toll-gate  and  the 
other  held  the  gate  of  the  foot-path  by  the  road-side.  One  of  the 
gate-posts  still  occupies  its  original  position,  and  is  interesting 
because  of  a  singular  contrivance  it  exhibits  in  connection  with  the 
old  coaching  days.  There  is  a  hole  right  through  it,  which  was 
made  to  receive  a  bolt  connected  with  a  lever  and  pulley  in  the 
bed-chamber  above,  so  that  anyone  passing  through  the  bar  in  the 
night-time,  called  out,  and  if  he  were  a  resident  in  the  neighbourhood, 
or  some  known  frequenter  of  the  road,  the  bar-keeper  need  not  leave 
his  chamber,  but  by  simply  pulling  the  lever  allowed  the  traveller  to 
pass  through  the  gate.  Of  course  if  they  were  strangers  he  had  to 
dress  and  come  downstairs  to  receive  the  toll.  The  contrivance 
saved  a  good  deal  of  night  work,  as  there  was  much  traffic  on  this 
road  in  the  old  days. 


Kexmoor  near  Kirkby  Malzeard  is  in  Domesday  spelled  Chetesmor. 


CHAPTER    XXVII. 


ROUND  ABOUT  DRAUGHTON. 

Local   geological   phenomena     The   threat   anticlinal,    cause   ot    the  Harrogate   mineral 
waters     Aspects  at    Bnltoii  Abbey   -Draughton   in    Domesday — Old  local  families 
Dr.  \Vainman     Draughton  Hall      Local  relics     An  old  cotton-mill  -The  church  and 
-chool      Past  traditions     A  Story  of  witchcraft     Close  House  and  tin:  Moorhouses 
Loc.-il  belief  in  "Red  Cap"      Pedigree  ot  i he  Moorhiuisi-      Loral  relics  in  pn--.es. -ion 
of  the  author    -Families  descended   from    the   Moorhoiises     Dr.    Moorhouse — The 
Currers    of    Skibeden      Last    Skibeden    and    Judge    Nightingale —A    crack    shot 
Local  anecdote. 

O  the  lover  of  natural  scenery  and  especially  to  those  of 
a  >cientific  bent,  this  neighbourhood  teems  with  interest 
of  no  common  kind.  The  disruption  caused  by  the 
i^reat  anticlinal,  forming  a  range  of  rocky  hills  stretching 
^  from  Skipton  towards  Bolton  Abbey,  is  attended  with 
many  complexities  in  the  marvellous  disposition  of  the  strata,  in  the 
courses  of  the  streams  and  springs,*  and  in  the  life  incident  to  the 
varied  character  of  the  surface  rocks.  The  Yoredales  have  been 
thrust  up,  causing  the  superincumbent  Kinderscout  Grit  to  dip  from 
them  on  either  side,  and  in  its  passage  eastwards  by  Bolton  Abbey  a 
good  section  of  the  Yoredale  shales  is  exposed  at  the  waterfall  there 
above  the  river.  Here  the  shales  have  a  north-westerly  dip,  while 
lower  down  the  river  they  dip  in  an  opposite  direction,  the  hard  beds 
of  contorted  rock  thus  coming  between  these  two  great  shaly 
upheavals.  These  striking  still  eastwards  to  Harrogate  are  the  prime 
factors  in  the  production  of  the  wonderful  medicinal  waters  for  which 
that  spa  obtains  its  fame. 

Throughout  its  course  this  limestone  upheaval  presents  most 
singular  contortions,  in  the  form  of  a  succession  of  arches,  curves  or 
serpentine  bendings  along  the  face  of  the  strata.  In  a  quarry  behind 
the  .}fafc/iless  inn  at  Draughton  (a  name  that  might  well  be  applied 
to  these  rocks),  and  in  the  Hambleton  quarries  near  Bolton  Abbey 
station,  these  remarkable  convolutions  are  seen  to  great  advantage. 
The  folds  shew  no  breakage  and  have  no  doubt  resulted  from  a  slow 
and  long-continued  lateral  pressure  formed  along  a  line  of  crust- 
weakness,  and  during  the  crumbling  of  a  vast  thickness  of  overlying 
shales  and  grits,  since  removed  by  denudation.  The  dark-grey 

*  The  water  for  the  village  is  pumped  up  by  means  ot  a  ram  from  a  sprint,'-  situated 
at  the  bottom  of  a  hill  on  the  north  side  of  the  village,  and  thence  driven  into  a  capacious 
tank,  where  it  is  conveyed  in  pipes  to  the  houses.  But  this  process  involves  a  loss  of 
about  75"'  of  the  water  so  pumped,  only  about  a  fourth  part  of  the  water  being  secured. 


334 

limestone    is   also   traversed   by   numerous   veins   of  calcite,   and    in 
many  places  the  rock  appears  semi-crystalline. 

Though  in  the  watershed  of  the  Wharfe,  Draughton  is  in  the 
parish  of  Skipton,  and  originally  formed  part  of  the  fee  of  Romille. 
By  this  house  it  was  subfeudated  to  Wm.  le  Vavasour,  temp.  Henry 
II.,  and  in  1315  Adam  de  Midelton  and  Henry  le  Vavasour  are 
returned  as  joint  lords.  In  Domesday  we  read  that  there  were  three 
carucates  of  cultivated  land  in  Dractone  in  1086,  and  in  Hal  tone,  six 
carucates,  and  in  Schibeden  three  carucates,  shewing  that  these  places 
were  then  old  settlements  of  Anglo-Saxons.  The  first  syllable  in 
Draughton  may  contain  an  A-S.  personal  name,  although  in  Lye's 
Diet.  Sax.  et  Goth.  Latinum  (1772)  dracan  is  interpreted  gypsum,  so  that 
one  might  conclude  this  to  have  been  the  town  of  gypsum,  in  allusion 
to  its  situation  besides  the  striking  beds  of  limestone  above  mentioned. 
In  the  light  of  modem  science  they  cannot,  however  be  described 
as  gypsum,  although  we  do  occasionally  meet  with  gypsum  or  a  highly 
dolomitized  rock  in  the  Yorkshire  calcareous  beds.*  In  1275  the 
manor  of  "Drachton''  yielded  to  the  lord,  Mauger  le  Vavasour,  an 
annual  income  of  £2  55.  5d. 

The  place  appears  to  have  given  name  to  an  ancient  family, 
and  in  the  Calendar  of  State  Papers  I  find  recorded  among  the 
contributors  to  the  Crusade  of  1267-76,  four  Craven  names,  viz.  : 
Robert  de  la  Sale,  de  Skipton,  half-mark  ;f  William  de  Drahton  2s.  ; 
Johannes  de  Kirkeby  Malghedale,  i  mark,  and  Rogerus  de  Gikelswik, 
5s.  The  family  of  Draughton  was  still  living  at  Draughton  in  1378, 
as  appears  by  the  Government  tax  levied  on  all  householders  and 
adults  for  carrying  on  the  costly  wars  with  France.  There  were 
three  married  couples  of  this  name  in  the  village,  namely  John, 
Robert,  and  William  de  Draghton,  with  their  wives,  in  addition  to 
which  there  were  ten  other  married  couples  and  seven  adults.  All 
the  inhabitants  were  employed  on  the  land  except  Robert  Bradlay,  a 
tailor,  and  John  Mason  whose  trade  is  not  given.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  also  at  this  time  there  were  two  families  living  here  who 
continued  to  reside  at  Draughton  and  neighbourhood  for  centuries. 
These  were  the  Masons  and  Wainmans.  The  registers  of  York 
Minster  contain  the  marriage  entry,  under  date,  July  30  1695,  of 
Robert  Wayneman  of  Draughton  and  Elizabeth  Mason,  of  York.  He 
was  the  son  of  Thomas  Wainman  of  Draughton  who  died  in  1690 
and  related  to  the  Wainmans  of  Embsay.  This  family  afterwards 
lived  at  the  manor-house,  which  they  rebuilt,  and  which  still  stands 
in  the  village,  but  is  now  converted  into  three  cottages.  Over  the 

*  See  Memoirs  of  Geol.  Sutvey,  "Ingleborough"  (1890)  p.  80. 

f  The  wardship  and  marriag-e  of  John,  son  of  Richard,  son  of  Robert  de  la  Sale,  of 
Timble,  was  granted  1302  by  the  Archbishop  of  York  to  William  le  Serjaunt  ot 
Bloberhouses  until  the  said  John  should  come  of  age.  See  Archbishop  Corbridge's 
Register. 


335 

principal  entrance  i>  a  Miiall  shield  bearing  the  initials  k  M  w  and 
date  1669  in  all  probability  standing  for  Robert  Wainman,  who  died 
at  Draughton  in  1701,  and  his  wife.  Richard,  son  of  Thomas 
Wainmain,  of  Draughton  was  born  in  1664,  and  married  Ann,  daughter 
of  Thomas  Leach,  and  had  issue  Thomas,  Martha,  and  Joseph. 

Of  this  family  was  the  distinguished  Dr.  John  Wainman,  of 
whom  there  is  an  obituary  notice  in  the  Gentleman*  Magazine  for 
1794.  He  was  the  son  of  Oglethorp  Wainman,  and  had  a  son, 
Oglethorp,  born  in  the  year  1750,  who  followed  his  father's  medical 
profession  in  Skipton  up  to  the  time  of  his  death  in  1800.  A  family 
memorial  in  Skipton  church  records  that  the  above  John  Wainman 
practised  as  a  surgeon  in  that  town  for  upwards  of  fifty  years  with 
conspicuous  credit  and  success.  He  was  also  well  skilled  in  the 
literature  of  his  profession,  able  and  courteous,  and  greatly  respected 
by  all  who  knew  him.  Skipton  was  quite  a  little  University  of 
medical  men  at  this  time,  for  in  addition  to  the  Wainmans,  father 
and  son,  there  were  other  distinguished  practitioners,  including  Dr. 
Moorhouse,  a  native  of  the  town,  and  Dr.  Clapham,  who  afterwards 
settled  at  Whitby. 

The  old  manor-house  has  long  been  the  property  of  the  Whitham 
family,  and  the  so-called  Draughton  Hall,  belonging  to  Mr. 
Coulthurst,  of  Gargrave,  was  pulled  down  about  ten  years  ago  and 
the  substantial  dwelling  now  occupied  by  Mr.  Christopher  Wood, 
was  erected  on  its  site.  Bolton  Priory  had  an  estate  here,  which 
now  belongs  to  the  Duke  of  Devonshire  by  inheritance  from  the 
Cliffords.  In  1692  I  find  the  tithes  of  Bolton,  Hazelwood,  Storriths, 
and  Draughton-cum-Barwick  were  farmed  by  John  Winterburn  at  an 
annual  rental  of  ^43  to  be  paid  to  the  Earl  of  Burlington  in  two 
instalments,  viz. :  at  Martinmas  and  on  the  twenty-fourth  day  of  March. 

Of  old  Draughton  families  living  here  from  the  latter  days  of 
Elizabeth  to  the  time  of  Charles  I.,  besides  the  two  mentioned,  were 
those  of  Oldfield,  MoorhoiiM1.  \Yeatherhead,  Brigg,  Xewby, 
Thompson,  Holmes,  Ward,  Spurrett.  Heelis,  Stott,  Taylor,  Wall, 
Simpson,  Read,  Currer,  Rycroft,  Milner,  Todd,  Gott,  &c..  while  at 
Barwick  were  the  Listers  and  Croukshays  or  Crawshaws.  Some  of 
these  are  here  yet,  including  Simpson,  Read,  Mason  and  Holmes. 

I  have  seen  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Henry  Simpson  some 
Edwardian  and  Elizabethan  coins  and  other  relics  and  curiosities, 
including  the  original  copper  plate,  size  twent\-six  by  twenty  and  a 
half  inches,  of  the  celebrated  Craven  Heifer,  engravings  from  which 
are  to  be  found  in  many  old  houses  and  inns  (to  which  it  has  given 
name)  throughout  Craven.  John  Watkinson,  of  Halton  East, 
purchased  that  wonderful  animal  from  the  Rev.  W.  Carr,  of  Bolton 
Abbey  for  ^200,  and  after  exhibiting  her  in  many  an  English  shire 
had  the  distinction  of  slaughtering  her  with  his  own  hands  in 


336 

Her  dead  weight  was  150  stones  (sixteen  pounds  to  the  stone).*  Mr. 
Watkinson  was  grandfather  to  the  present  owner  of  the  Draughton 
manor-house,  Mrs.  Wheelhouse,  daughter  of  the  late  Mr.  Edward 
Whitham. 

Agriculture  of  course  has  always  been  paramount  in  this  district, 
but  towards  the  end  of  last  century  and  the  beginning  of  this,  almost 
every  village  in  Craven  had  its  cotton  mill,  where  now  hardly  a  stone 
is  left  to  tell  the  story  of  a  vanished  industry.  Addingham,  I  have 
shewn,  had  a  very  early  factory  of  this  kind,  and  Draughton,  too, 
had  its  little  mill  shortly  afterwards.  In  the  Bolton  Abbey  registers 
for  1802  a  fatal  accident  is  recorded  as  having  befallen  a  little  lad 
at  the  Draughton  mill,  the  son  of  Wm.  Phillip,  of  Halton. 

Draughton  boasts  the  possession  of  some  relics  of  the  old  parish 
constable  days,  namely,  a  pinfold  and  stocks,  though  the  pinfold  was 
removed  when  the  present  handsome  little  church  of  St.  Augustine 
was  built  on  the  site  two  years  ago,  the  foundation-stone  of  which 
was  laid  in  August,  1897,  by  the  Duchess  of  Devonshire.  The 
school  was  erected  in  1851  on  a  site,  given  by  Mr.  John  Coulthurst, 
of  Gargrave,  and  for  some  years  has  been  in  charge  of  Mrs.  E. 
Moorhouse  Sim. 

Many  are  the  traditions,  anecdotes,  and  vestiges  of  folk-lore  1 
might  relate  of  people  and  places  in  this  my  ancestral  district,  where 
within  sound  of  the  convent  bells  of  Bolton  Priory,  generations  of 
my  forbears  lived  and  toiled.  No  gill  in  a  former  day  was  without 
its  elf  or  fairy  ;  no  deeply-banked  lane  or  by-way  was  without  its 
barguest,  while  more  than  one  lonely  farmstead  was,  wonderful  to 
relate,  positively  haunted !  Old  Grace  Preston  used  to  relate 
that  she  had  once  seen  a  strange  man  in  the  glimmer  of  candle-light 
in  the  old  manor  house  at  Draughton,  and  when  she  spoke  to  him 
\&  vanished  like  mist!  It  is  always  believed  that  two  brothers  once 
lived  here,  and  one  of  them,  afflicted  with  the  vile  spirit  of  Cain, 
took  the  life  of  his  partner,  who  continued  to  haunt  the  murderer 
and  his  home  as  long  as  he  lived,  nor  was  the  ghost  believed  to  be 
firmly  laid  even  till  our  own  time.  Stories  of  other  haunted  houses 
are  current  too.  Then  again  the  district  was  terribly  troubled  with 
the  mischievous  wiles  of  witches  and  wisemen,  and  woe  betide 
anyone  who  neglected  to  nail  up  the  precautionary  horse-shoe  on 
his  house  and  stable  door.  A  man  named  Edward  Peel,  who  had 
married  a  daughter  of  Currer  Gill,  of  Draughton,  in  the  early  part  of 
this  century,  and  who  then  lived  at  Field  House,  now  occupied  by 
Mr.  Edwin  Thornber,  had  a  family  of  sons  and  daughters.  The 
youngest -was  named  Currer  Peel  and  a  fine  healthy  baby  he  was 

*  Our  famous  Craven  heifer  has  recently  been  exceeded  in  sixe  and  weight  by  an 
enormous  Irish-bred  shorthorn  bullock,  which  was  exhibited  at  Harrison's  Mart, 
Carlisle,  at  Christmas  1895.  ^  was  over  seventeen  hands  high  and  turned  the  scales  at 
^  stones;  being-  the  heaviest  animal  of  the  rlass  ever  known. 


337 

born,  (a>  report  went)  without  mark  or  flaw  upon  him.  But  alas! 
the  horse-shoe  had  been  by  some  mischance  removed  from  the  door, 
and  one  day  when  the  boy-babe  was  asleep  in  his  cradle,  Mrs.  Peel 
went  out  to  assist  her  husband  in  the  hay-tields.  On  her  return  the 
child  was  awake  and  lifting  him  up,  lo  !  to  her  horror  and  dismay 
found  he  had  a  club-foot.  She  vowed  and  declared  to  everyone  as 
long  as  she  lived  that  the  witches  or  bad  fairies  had  done  it,  as  her 
child  she  said,  wa.s  born  perfect.  Be  that  as  it  may  Currer  Peel 
carried  a  club-foot  to  his  grave  in  old  a- 

Close  House,  beside  the  Roman  road  through  Addingham,  is 
an  old  home  of  the  Moorhouses,  from  whom  and  which  house  the 
author  of  this  work  is  lineally  descended.  The  old  homestead  (now 
rebuilt)  stood  there  long  before  the  days  of  bluff  King  Hal,  and 
formerly  when  old  beliefs  were  rife,  was  avowed  to  be  under  the 
special  guardianship  of  an  active,  yet  testy  little  hob  or  fairy,  who 
went  by  the  singular  name  of  Red  Cap.  A  curious  composite  of 
superhuman  strength  and  frailty  was  this  ancient  wight.  We  are 
often  told  that  extremes  meet,  and  surely  the  proverb  could  not 
be  better  exampled  than  in  the  singular  character  of  this  mytho- 
humanity,  who  was  the  very  type  and  ideal  of  mischief  and  ill-doing 
as  well  as  of  industrious  toil.  He  could  play  his  pranks  and  bring 
disaster,  as  the  humour  swayed  him,  or  work  with  might  and  main 
to  his  own  or  masters  honour, — the  spirit  of  evil  it  might  be  lurking 
in  a  righteous  breast,  the  spirit  of  something  burning  on  the  horizon 
of  Life,  which  kindled  the  old  fire  of  pagan  tradition  and  continued 
to  live  in  various  guises  in  the  long  after-time.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  of  his  pagan  forbears,  being  akin  to  the  race  of  Kobolcls  who 
frequented  favoured  houses  to  aid  the  servants  in  their  work.  Here 
at  Close  House  this  venerable  sprite  had  been  a  good  little  fellow 
in  his  young  days,  watching  over  flock  and  farm,  and  we  were 
always  told  he  had  assisted  in  hay-time  and  performed  sundry 
and  other  work,  without  any  fee  or  reward,  perchance  saving  an 
occasional  cup  of  milk  or  a  cosy  nook  by  the  lire-side  in  stormy 
weather.  A  wonderful  creature  truly !  But  as  rumour  saith  he  one 
day  gave  the  honest  farm-folk  the  cold  shoulder,  and  ever  since  has 
been  wandering  through  dale  and  field,  an  idle  worthless  wight,  no 
good  to  anyone,  and  tempting  others,  too,  to  idle,  evil  ways.  Many 
a  time  have  I  in  childhood's  days,  tossed  the  sweet  mown  grass  in 
the  hay-field,  when  tired  with  the  rustic  work  have  fallen  down 
in  the  warm  sunshine  and  slept.  When  so  caught  I  have  been 
teased  with  having  seen  Red  Cap,  though  I  always  declared  I 
should  like  to  see  the  imp,  but  insooth  I  never  did. 

These  Moorhouses  were  living  at  Close  House  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  descendants  of  one  of  the  three  families  who  settled  at 
Cracoe  and  Rilston  after  the  sacking  of  Bolton  Abbey  by  the  Scots 
in  the  preceding  century.  While  at  Close  House  they  must  have 


338 


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346 

been  in  frequent  communion  with.Bolton  Abbey,  and  when  the  crash 
came  they  were  one  of  the  few  families  in  this  district  who  resolutely 
held  to  the  faith  that  had  built  up  the  old  monastery.  They  were  long 
the  principal  tenants  of  the  Castle,  the  lords  of  which  were  staunch 
Protestants,  who  in  troubled  times  must  have  looked  with  some 
disfavor  on  their  Catholic  tenants,  and  there  is  little  doubt  this  was 
the  cause  of  the  Moorhouses'  removal  from  Skibeden  during  the 
unsettled  era  of  the  Stuart  rebellion  in  1745-6.  At  least  one  Skipton 
man  tried  to  join  Prince  Charlie's  army,  but  so  strong  was  the 
opposition  in  Skipton  that  the  authorities  raised  a  "hue  and  cry" 
and  the  man  was  caught  and  thrown  into  York  Castle. 

Before  the  days  of  railways  it  was  no  uncommon  circumstance 
to  find  families  who  had  been  living  on  a  single  estate  for  several 
centuries,  and  this  was  particularly  the  case  in  rural  Craven.  But 
no  one,  I  believe,  has  ever  yet  attempted  to  elucidate  this  by  descent 
of  each  successive  generation  in  tabular  form.  The  subjoined 
pedigree,  appropriately  commencing  with  an  Adam,  may  therefore 
prove  of  some  interest  as  furnishing  the  descent  of  one  of  the  oldest 
yeoman  families  in  Craven,  and  is  offered  as  a  continuation  of  that  of 
Currer  given  on  page  248.  It  may  be  noted  that  in  the  course  of  four 
centuries  my  own  branch  of  the  family  occupied  but  three  homesteads, 
and  it  is  moreover  remarkable  that  the  heads  of  the  house  have 
successively  borne  the  names  of  Thomas  and  John  for  probably  not 
less  than  five  centuries. 

Thomas,  son  of  Thomas  Moorhouse,  died  at  Close  House  in 
1538,  and  by  his  will  he  orders  that  "a  derige  and  a  masse  be  done 
on  the  daye  of  my  buriall  for  my  Saule  and  all  Crestien  saules." 
His  family  remained  at  Close  House  until  1620,  when  Edward 
Moorhouse  took  the  "model  farm"  at  Skibeden,  afterwards  occupied 
by  Mr.  Will  Nightingale,  the  celebrated  coursing-judge.  The  present 
writer  has  a  small  carved  oak  box  of  apothecary's  scales  and  weights, 
bearing  the  Government  stamp  of  James  I.  It  is  very  ingeniously 
constructed,  and  has  the  monogram  of  Moorhouse  and  date  1624, 
cut  in  front  of  the  box,  which  there  is  no  doubt  has  descended  from 
Edward  Moorhouse  of  Close  House.  He  also  possesses  a  carved 
oak  cabinet,  with  an  unusual  panelled  canopy,  bearing  the  initials 
and  date,  "TM.AM.  1656,"  a  plainly-wrought  but  interesting  relic 
of  the  time  when  there  was  a  great  transformation  in  the  domestic 
habits  in  rural  Craven,  when  the  old  mud  hovels  were  abandoned 
and  the  better-class  of  farm-folk  began  to  build  roomy  and  comfortable 
houses,  and  even  decorate  them  with  home-made  cabinet  work. 
This  was  made  at  Skibeden  in  the  time  of  Thomas  and  Ann 
Moorhouse,  whose  grandson  Thomas,  removed  from  there  to  the 
White  House,  Elslack,  in  1746,  where  they  remained  until  the 
extinction  of  this  branch  of  the  family  in  the  person  of  the  author's 
great-uncle,  John  Moorhouse,  who  died  in  1891.  The  senior  (Roman 


Catholic)  line,  however,  still  survives  in  the  person  of  Mr.  James 
Ellison  Moorhouse,  of  Bradford,  whose  aunt,  Ann  Moorhouse, 
married  James  Haggas,  of  Keighley,  from  whom  all  the  Haggases, 
the  well-known  mill-owners  and  manufacturers  of  Keighley,  descend. 
Also  by  the  marriage  of  Nancy,  sister  of  Thomas  Moorhouse,  of 
Elslack,  with  Richard  Ayrton,  of  Scale  House,  Rilston,  whose 
daughter,  Ellen,  married  Wm.  England  (who  died  in  1860,  aged 
seventy),  all  the  Englands  of  Bingley  descend.  Many  of  these 
Moorhouses  are  buried  in  the  choir  of  Skipton  Church,  and  though 
but  yeomen  of  the  better  class  they  played  their  part  in  the  passing 
events  of  the  time,  intermarrying  with  the  best  local  yeoman  families, 
including  the  Currers,  Bensons,  Ayrtons,  Chamberlains,  &c.  More 
than  one  member  of  the  family  took  part  in  the  Civil  War,  joining 
the  ranks  of  Prince  Rupert,  and  assisting  in  the  defences  of  Skipton 
Castle.  The  present  writer  owns  the  sword  of  John  Moorhouse,  who 
after  the  battle  of  Marston  Moor  returned  to  Skipton  and  was  laid 
to  rest  with  his  fathers  just  three  weeks  after  the  great  fight  in  July, 
1644. 

Dr.  Wm.  Moorhouse,  who  is  described  in  the  biography  of  Dr. 
Wm.  Clapham,  as  "an  eminent  surgeon  and  apothecary  at  Skipton 
in  Craven,"*  removed  I  believe  late  in  life  to  Gargrave,  where  he 
had  an  extensive  practise  among  the  Craven  gentry.  He  died  in 
1813  and  is  buried  with  his  wife  in  the  Currer  vault  in  the  north 
aisle  of  Skipton  Church.  By  his  marriage  with  Margaret,  daughter 
of  Henry  Currer,  of  Skipton,  gent,  (see  page  248),  their  lineage  in  all 
its  branches,  'in  my  possession,  is  traced  back  to  the  Earls  of 
Northumbria  before  the  Norman  Conquest. 

These  old  Craven  yeomen  were  after  all  the  very  backbone  of 
the  land,  the  very  tap-root  so  to  speak  of  agricultural  developments 
in  the  dales  ;  thoroughly  conservative  though  they  were  in  their  lives 
and  manners,  and  slow  to  move  or  alter  their  condition,  yet  they 
gave  to  Church  and  State  some  of  their  noblest  sons.  Such  were 
the  Bensons,  Currers,  Stubbs,  and  Thackerays.  The  Currers  were 
living  at  Skibeden  at  the  same  time  as  the  Moorhouses,  but  this 
branch  of  the  family  has  never  been  elucidated.  There  are  good 
reasons  for  supposing  they  were  of  the  Wharfedale  stock,  and  had 
settled  here  in  the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  Wm.  Currer  of  Skibeden 
had  a  son  Thomas,  born  about  1590,  and  a  son  William,  born  in 
1605,  who  was  related  to  the  Goodgeons,  and  who  was  accidentally 
drowned  at  Bentley  Bridge  in  1630.  The  above  Thomas  Currer, 
who  died  in  1651,  had  several  sons  and  daughters,  but  only  Edward 
lived  to  bring  up  a  family,  and  he  married  Abigail,  daughter  of  Wm. 
Goodgeon,  with  whose  offspring  the  race  of  Currer  of  Skibeden  died 
out.  Their  daughters,  Mary  who  died  in  1678,  and  Elizabeth  who 

*  See  York  Chronicle  for  May  loth,  1875,  one  of  the  principal  newspapers  of  the  day. 


342 

died  in  1688,  were  the  last  Currers  of  Skibeden.  Whether  or  in 
what  way  they  were  related  to  the  Skipton  and  Kildwick  Currers  I 
have  not  made  out.  Whitaker  quotes  a  letter  dated  1711  addressed 
to  the  Earl  of  Thanet  (3rd  ed.  p.  384)  wherein  it  is  stated  that  one 
Currer  was  governor  of  Skipton  Castle. 

The  substantial  old  house  at  East  Skibeden,  occupied  by  the 
Moorhouses,  was  afterwards  rebuilt,  and  thirty  to  forty  years  ago 
was  the  well-known  home  of  "Judge  Nightingale,"  the  celebrated 
coursing-judge.  His  house  was  the  rendezvous  of  agriculturalists 
and  sportsmen  hailing  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  a  book 
might  be  written  on  the  life-story  of  this  famous  countryman.*  He 
was  the  recipient  of  innumerable  and  costly  prizes  and  presents,  and 
many  are  the  stories  told  of  his  prowess  in  the  field.  He  was  a 
crack  shot,  indeed  he  was  a  wonderful  shot,  there  was  no  better 
through  the  length  and  breadth  of  Craven.  I  will  conclude  this 
chapter  with  an  unrecorded  anecdote  of  his  skill,  only  giving  you  a 
foretaste  of  it  by  remarking  that  he  once  killed  seventeen  snipe  on 
the  Nappa  estate  with  just  as  many  shots,  never  missing  a  bird,  and 
to  those  who  know  anything  of  the  shyness  of  snipe  and  the  difficulty 
of  getting  at  them,  the  fact  may  seem  incredible.  He  had  a 
marvellously-trained  pointer  dog,  of  his  own  bringing  up,  which  he 
called  "Old  Duke."  At  that  time  it  was  the  custom  to  shoot  over 
dogs;  much  fairer  game  according  to  the  old  school  of  sportsmen, 
than  the  present  method  of  grouse-driving,  when  hundreds  of  birds 
are  killed  in  a  day.  Well,  one  August  the  late  Duke  of  Devonshire 
had  as  one  of  his  guests  at  Bolton  Abbey  the  late  Lord  Morpeth, 
Earl  of  Carlisle,  a  famous  politician  and  patron  of  literature,  but  a 
very  bad  shot.  He  invited  honest  Will  to  accompany  his  lordship 
and  put  him  in  the  right  way  of  securing  a  few  birds  to  his  gun. 
When  they  had  got  on  to  the  moors  where  birds  were  plentiful,  Lord 
Morpeth  fired  and  repeatedly  fired  but  all  to  no  purpose,  he  could 
not  bring  down  a  single  bird.  "Steady,  steady,"  admonished 
Nightingale,  "take  your  time,  my  lord,  let  the  birds  rise  and  watch 
the  wind,"  he  went  on  to  say.  But  to  no  purpose,  powder  and 
pellets  were  scattered  amongst  the  heather,  but  not  a  grouse  fell, 
"Come,"  said  his  lordship  at  last,  wearied  with  his  bad  luck,  I  should 
like  to  see  you  try  Mr.  Nightingale,  they  tell  me  you  are  one  of  the 
best  shots  in  the  district."  "Nay,  my  lord,"  came  the  suave  answer, 
"I  have  nothing  to  boast  of,  though  if  you  wish  I  will  have  a  chance," 

*  From  a  copy  in  my  possession  of  premiums  awarded  at  the  first  show  of  the 
Craven  Agricultural  Society  held  at  Skipton  on  Thursday,  2oth  September,  1855,  I  find 
that  Mr.  Nightingale  took  the  first  special  prize  of  £2,  of  his  own  giving,  for  the  best 
pair  of  horses,  of  either  sex,  for  agricultural  purposes,  worked  during  the  season,  the 
property  of  a  tenant  farmer  in  the  district  of  Craven,  and  Mr.  J.  N.  Coulthurst,  of 
Gargrave,  took  the  prize  of  £2,  also  offered  by  Mr.  Nightingale,  for  the  best  cob  above 
fourteen  and  under  fifteen  hands  high,  in  the  district  of  Craven, 


343 

•Tray,  take  the  gun,"  urged  his  lordship,  handing  it  to  him.  So  the 
farmer  sportsman  took  the  weapon  and  loading  it,  got  his  famous 
pointer  well  in  hand;  then  hang!  hang!  hang!  seven  birds  fell  with 
as  many  shots  and  in  as  many  minutes!  "Ton  my  word,"  remarked 
his  lordship  on  witnessing  this  astonishing  feat,  "  I  would  give  fifty 
pounds  to  shoot  like  that!" 

At  the  Duke's  table  in  the  evening,  Lord  Morpeth  was  loud  in 
his  praises  of  the  Skibeden  yeoman's  prowess  with  the  grouse,  and 
next  day  his  Grace  sent  his  head-keeper  to  Mr.  Nightingale  granting 
him  a  free  day's  shooting  on  the  moors.  Although  the  day  appointed 
was  not  very  favorable  and  the  moor  had  been  well  scouted  of  its 
game,  he  with  good  "Old  Duke"  managed  to  bag  about  ^5  worth 
of  birds. 

Mr.  Nightingale's  sister,  I  may  add,  Mrs.  Atkin,  was  considered 
a  very  superior  woman,  and  as  landlady  for  many  years  of  the  old 
Black  Horse  in  Skipton,  had  the  great  respect  of  all  who  claimed  her 
acquaintance. 


ON  THE  WHARFE,  BOLTON  WOODS, 


rilAI'TKK     XXVIII. 


TllkOlV.ll       I  UK     W(>(  )!>.-.      PO      liARIlKN     '1'oWKK. 

I  'in  (  -a-int;  charm  of  Bolton  \Voods  Wild  (lowers  Tin-  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  .\rclihi--liop 
Hen-on  and  Mr.  Ruskin's  opinions  . \ndsell  and  l.andseer  at  Hollon  I'he  l\e\. 
\Vin.  ('air  <  )peninif  out  the  woods  with  pleasant  paths  and  drives  -Tin-  Re\.  A. 
I'.  Howes  Names  of  soint- old  "Scats  "  Tin-  "White  Horse"  of  tin:  Strid  I.ud 
Islands  Harden  Tower  Inventory  in  the  lime  of  Lady  Anne  Clifford  -Lite  at 
Huden  Tower  in  the  time  of  the  "Shepherd  Lord"  Abstracts  of  his  domestic 
O3CS  Lorest  lodges  and  river-watchers  -Local  relics  Harden  Church. 

i( )  the  woods  and  hills!  \Vh;it  a  sense  of  freedom  and 
freshness  there  is  in  the  utterance  of  these  words, 
rendered  all  the  more  attractive-  when  we  are  conscious 
of  the  fact  that  beauty  and  interest  are  also  enshrined 
therein.  And  Holton  Woods  are  all  this,  full  of  never 
ending  interest,  and  in  their  grand  expanses,  fresh  and  beautiful  and 
md  though  they  be  as  "  household  words,"  they  are  ever  as 
wholesome  food  to  the  weary  and  of  them  the  heart  never  tires. 
Many  a  time  and  in  all  seasons  have  we  sought  their  pleasant  ways, 
in  the  buoyant  freshness  of  spring,  or  when  thirsting  for  the  refu^i-  of 
summer  shades,  and  while  autumn  "nodding  o'er  the  yellow  plain,"  or 
even  after  her  tropic-colored  robes  have  yielded  to  winter's  frosty  grip, 
and  our  dear  protecting  Mother  lias  clothed  with  her  matchless  jewels 
leafless  twig  and  bough. 

But  to-day  the  sun  is  up,  and  his  golden  beams  are  checkering 
the  forest  glades  and  throwing  long  shadows  from  the  old  Priory 
walls.  Away  then,  like  happy  elfs  of  old,  let  us  trip  through  this 
sylvan  fairyland,  tracing  the  greenwood  paths  into  umbrageous 
depths,  where  in  the  sweet  poesy  of  Lycidas — 

The  mild  whispers  use 

Of  shades  and  wanton  winds  and  flushing-  brooks, 
On  whose  fresh  lap  the  swart  star  sparely  looks; 

and  where  the  gods  seem  to  have  invoked  the  genius  of  the  forest  to 

Throw  hither  all  your  quaint  enamcll'd  eyes 
That  on  the  green  turf  suck  the  honied  shower--, 
And  purple  all  the  ground  with  vernal  flowers. 

With  no  unsparing  hand  either,  for  when  bounteous  Flora  reigns  the 
far-spread  underwood  is  massed  with  kaleidoscopic  coloring,  and  tons 
of  nosegays  are  annually  carried  off  to  brighten  town  homes.  The 
gathering  of  roots,  I  am  glad  to  say,  is  strictly  forbidden,  or  the 
floral  glory  of  these  "  right  ancient  woodlands  "  would  soon  be  gone. 
Sweet  scenes  they  are,  helpmeets  to  our  earthly  joy,  scenes  that 


346 

quicken  hope  and  thought  in  heart  and  mind,  and  to  which  the  pencil 
of  genius  and  the  language  of  poet  and  dilettante,  owe  not  a  little  of 
their  cunning.  Landseer,  Turner,  and  Andsell,  amongst  artists,  and 
Wordsworth,  Rogers,  Ruskin,  and  Austin,  the  latest  of  our  honored 
laureates,  have  each  and  all  learned  something  by  the  lessons  which 
these  classic  scenes  unfold.  The  late  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  nephew  of 
the  poet  Wordsworth,  used  to  say,  if  there  was  one  place  more  than 
another  engraved  on  the  heart  and  memory  of  the  poet  it  was  the 
scenery  of  Bolton  Abbey.  And  from  the  charming  life-story  of  the 
late  Archbishop  Benson,  lately  given  to  the  world,  we  gather  that 
Bolton  was  to  the  Primate  an  ideal  place,  full  of  soothing  restfulness. 
"  All  the  while  I  am  there,"  he  writes  in  his  Diary,  "  I  have  a  perfect 
Sunday  feel,"  a  quiet,  beautiful  peace  !  And  Mr.  Ruskin  too  reminds 
us  that  it  was  from  Wharfedale  that  Turner,  the  artist-genius,  drew 
much  of  his  early  inspiration.  He  tells  us  how  glad  the  youth  was 
to  escape  from  the  cramping  din  of  streets,  to  reach  the  Yorkshire 
hills,  where  all  was  calm  and,  nothing  "but  curlew-cry  in  space  of 
heaven,  and  welling  of  bell-toned  streamlet  by  its  shadowy  rock. 
Freedom  at  last !  Dead  wall,  dark  railing,  fenced  field,  gated 
garden,  all  passed  away  like  the  dream  of  a  prisoner." 

The  late  Mr.  Henry  Whitaker,  of  Greenholme,  tells  us  how  he 
once  drove  Richard  Andsell,  the  celebrated  animal  and  landscape 
painter,  to  see  Bolton  Abbey.  It  was  a  beautiful  day  in  the  autumn 
of  1842,  and  the  painter,  with  an  eye  trained  to  discriminate  Nature's 
moods,  became  quite  enraptured  with  the  scenery  and  the  views. 
After  putting  up  the  horse  and  phaeton  at  the  inn  they  started  to 
walk  to  the  Strid,  "but,"  says  Mr.  Whitaker,  "it  was  difficult  to  get 
my  companion  along,  he  was  so  constantly  stopping  to  admire  the 
different  points  of  view."  "Stop!"  he  suddenly  exclaimed,  "Behold 
those  cows  in  the  water,  what  a  foreground  for  a  picture  and  then 
what  a  background, — the  old  Abbey  in  the  middle  distance,  and  the 
rich,  tinted  scar  opposite,  with  those  glorious  old  trees  towering  aloft ! 
Oh,  if  I  had  only  my  paints  and  sketching-book!"  Then  he 
would  make  another  sudden  stop,  and  exclaim,  "Why,  this  peep 
surpasses  the  other,"  so  that  it  was  with  the  greatest  reluctance  he 
would  leave  the  place.  He  lingered  some  time  at  the  Strid. 

On  a  former  occasion,  Mr.  Whitaker  remarks  he  had  been  fishing 
with  a  friend  in  the  Wharfe  at  Bolton,  and  while  sitting  at  lunch 
on  the  rocks  at  the  right  side  of  the  Strid,  the  Rev.  Wm.  Carr,  then 
incumbent  of  Bolton,  came  up  the  rocks  on  the  opposite  side. 
He  was  accompanied  by  a  gentleman  in  dark  maroon-colored  velvet 
shooting-coat.  The  latter  sat  down  on  a  portable  folding-seat  and 
began  to  sketch  in  a  drawing-book  which  he  had  brought  with  him. 
They  soon  afterwards  learned  that  this  was  the  young  but  already 
famous  painter,  Edwin  Landseer,  who  was  staying  witH  the  parson  at 
Bolton.  Not  very  long  after  this  appeared  the  world-famed  picture  of 


-I 
o 

I 
m 
o 

CO 

c 

2 

s 
m 

33 

I 
O 

c 


348 

"Bolton    Abbey   in   the  Olden    Time,"    which    was   exhibited   at    the 
Royal  Academy  in  1834,  when  the  artist  was  in  his  33rd  year.* 

Mr.  Carr  was  incumbent  of  Bolton  for  fifty-four  years,  and  died 
in  1843  agefl  eighty.  He  was  the  son  of  the  Rev.  Thos.  Carr,  the 
previous  incumbent,  and  his  sister,  Dorothy,  married  the  Rev.  Wm. 
Crofts,  whose  daughter  Mary  married  the  Rev.  Wm.  Sidgwick, 
founder  of  Christ  Church,  Skipton,  and  father-in-law  of  the  late  Dr. 
Benson,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  (see  page  294).  At  the  time  of 
Landseer's  visit  Mr.  Carr  was  of  advanced  age,  and  was  no  doubt 
full  of  interesting  reminiscences  of  the  many  distinguished  people 
who  had  visited  him  from  time  to  time  at  his  peaceful  home  by  the 
Wharfe.  He  was  an  accomplished  scholar  and  a  man  of  fine  taste, 
having  an  admirable  regard  for  beautiful  scenery,  and  to  him  we 
owe  many  of  the  delicious  "peeps,"  paths,  and  prospects  now  existing 
in  the  woods.  It  is,  however,  not  generally  known  that  the  Duke  of 
Devonshire,  who  was  very  partial  to  walking  exercise,  and  had  a 
special  fondness  for  his  Bolton  Abbey  demesnes,  took  no  small  share 
in  formulating  the  designs  for  opening  out  these  beautiful  woods,  and 
some  of  the  walks  and  vistas  he  himself  suggested.  But  there  is  no 
doubt  that  to  Mr.  Carr  belongs  the  credit  of  superintending  these 
works  and  planning  himself  some  of  the  twenty-eight  miles  of  road 
and  walks  and  opening  out  many  of  the  exquisite  views. 

Bolton,  indeed,  has  been  fortunate  in  possessing  in  its  incumbents 
men  of  historic  taste  and  ripe  learning,  who  while  deprecating  any 
abuse  of  the  great  privileges  so  liberally  yielded  by  the  noble  owners 
of  the  estate,  have  preserved  a  right  appreciation  of  the  public 
enjoyment  of  these  unrivalled  woodlands.  The  present  rector,  the 
Rev.  A.  Plumptre  Howes,  M.A.,  is  now  very  well  known  not  only  as  a 
good  parson  but  as  a  good  antiquary,  who  has  a  more  than  ordinary 
care  for  the  old  abbey  and  its  surroundings,  while  the  public  are 
indebted  to  him  for  an  admirable  little  guide,  which  is  a  model  of 
accurate  fact  and  an  invaluable  help  to  all  who  wish  to  make  the 
most  of  a  visit  to  this  delightful  neighbourhood.  He  tells  us  all 
about  the  famous  Strid  and  gives  us  the  names  and  routes  to  all  the 
various  "seats"  and  arbours  and  best  points  of  view  in  the  far- 
reaching  woods.  There  are  by  the  way  a  number  of  places 
mentioned  by  Montagu  (1838)  such  as  Ungain  Terrace  (where  was  a 
Lodge,  near  the  Stepping-Stones),  Cat  Crag  Seat,  Prior's  Seat,  St. 
Bridget's  Seat,  Boyle  Ford  Seat,  Hawkstone,  (a  little  beyond  the 
Strid),  Buck  Rake  Seat,  &c.,  some  of  which  appear  to  be  now  lost  or 
forgotten.  Montagu  tells  us  also  that  just  above  Friar's  Stone  Seat 
several  grave-stones  were  found,  probably  where  some  friars  were 

*  It  has  been  conjectured  that  the  Rev.  Wm.  Carr  stood  for  the  Prior  in  Landseer's 
celebrated  picture,  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  this  central  figure  of  the  group  was  a 
well-known  artist  friend  of  Landseer's,  named  Calcott. 


buried  (?),  and   though  diligent  search   was  made  for  actual  remains, 
nothing  more  was  discovered. 

Wharfedale  I  should  say  has  its  "  White  Horse"  as  well  as 
Hambleton,  but  the  legend  of  the  "  White  Horse  of  Wharfedale " 
does  not  seem  to  be  so  generally  known  and  is  rarely  mentioned  in 
descriptions  of  the  Strid.  It  is  nevertheless  the  outcome  of  a  very 
old  local  superstition  that  when  a  person  is  drowning  in  the  Strid, 
and  how  many  alas  !  have  here  taken  the  fatal  step  to  eternity, — 
a  white  horse  is  seen  to  rise  to  the  surface  of  the  troubled  wave.  A 
local  poem  based  on  the  belief  appeared  in  Alaric  Watt's  Poetical 
Album,  about  sixty  years  ago,  and  I  give  one  verse  from  it : — 

Then  Janet  spake,  with  her  eyes  of  light, 

"  O,  if  I  had  a  fairy  power, 
I  would  change  this  oak  to  a  gallant  knight, 

And  this  grey  rock  to  a  bower. 
Our  dwelling  should  be  behind  a  scr  en 

Of  blossoming  alder  and  laurest 
The  spindle's  wool  should  lie  unspui 


And  our  lambs  lie  safe  in  the  sin 
While  the  merry  bells  ring  for  my  k 


HTKT  sun 


ight  and  me, — 


Farewell  to  the  halls  of  Hothmesley." 

This  book  is  now  exceedingly  scarce  and  but  rarely  quoted. 

The  views  from  the  river-side  as  you  approach  the  Strid  are  in 
places  exquisitely  beautiful.  Beyond  the  wooden  bridge,  near  the 
refreshment-lodge,  the  water  expands  considerably  and  there  are 
several  picturesque  islands,  which  have  been  known  from  time 
immemorial  as  Lud  Islands.  The  divided  river  which  passes  on  either 
side  is  also  called  Lud  streams,  and  there  is  an  old  lead-working 
close  by  called  Lud  Cave.  I  take  this  word  to  be  a  survival  of  the 
Celtic  lud,  little,  or  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  hlud,  loud  or  noisy  which 
is  not  to  be  confounded  with  A.-S.  lid,  or  lud,  hence  lud^eat,  a 
postern-gate,  or  barrier  anciently  erected  on  the  suburbs  of  our  large 
towns  and  other  places  leading  out  to  the  moors  and  commons.  I 
take  the  name  of  the  Strid  to  be  a  similar  survival  of  the  Celtic 
stri,  adopted  in  the  A.-S.  strith,  Norse  strith,  modern  German  streit, 
meaning  tumult,  contention,  in  allusion  to  the  strife  of  waters  in  the 
narrow  gorge  here,  and  not  as  is  popularly  supposed  from  its  being 
but  a  stride  across. 

We  now  come  to  Barden  Tower,  one  of  the  most  picturesque 
and  historically  interesting  places  in  this  part  of  Wharfedale,*  yet 
singularly  no  attempt  hitherto  has  been  made  to  elucidate  its  history 
or  even  to  describe  it.  A  search  among  the  muniments  at  Bolton 
Abbey  has  brought  to  light  many  interesting  particulars  and  out-of- 
the  way  incidents  concerning  life  at  the  Tower  during  the  time  of 
the  "  Shepherd  Lord,"  and  later  the  Tower  appears  to  have  been 

*  In   1892  the  superb  drawing  of  Barden  Tower  by  David  Cox,  24  inches  by  34 
inches,  passed  by  auction  to  Mr.  Agnew  for  noo  guineas. 


built  on  ;in  older  foundation,  which  served  as  one  of  the  many 
Lodges  of  the  wild  Forest  of  Harden  in  1'lantagenet  times.  The 
it  building  now  in  ruins,  was  raised  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
1 5th  century,  and  is  a  massive  quadrangular  structure  with  its 
principal  frontage  to  the  south.  The  walls  seem  to  have  been 
constructed  to  defy  the  assaults  of  time  as  of  man.  There  are 
detached  stones  and  masses  of  masonry  which  stand  out  threateningly, 
yet  the  tenacity  of  the  mortar  is  such  that  with  the  exception  of  a 
little  damage  done  in  the  stormy  winter  of  1892-3,  no  stone  is  known 
to  have  fallen  within  the  memory  of  the  oldest  inhabitant.  The 
roof  appears  to  have  been  originally  thatched,  and  in  1510  I  find  a 
payment  made  for  "soddes  for  the  towre  toppe."  It  was  certainly 
leaded  when  unroofed  a  century  ago.  Many  of  our  large  Yorkshire 
churches  had  roofs  of  thatch  down  to  the  i8th  century,  and  there 
are  many  churches  in  the  eastern  counties  which  still  retain  these 
primitive  roof-coverings.  Some  repairs  to  the  outer  walls  are  now' 
(1899)  going  on,  otherwise  nothing  has  been  done  to  preserve  the 
building  for  about  forty  years.  The  spacious  banqueting  hall,  with 
its  open  fire-place,  occupies  the  central  portion,  and  there  are 
chambers  of  corresponding  dimensions  above.  Other  rooms  occupy 
the  right  and  left  wings.  There  were  in  addition  to  the  great 
kitchen,  a  bakehouse,  brewhouse,  office  or  counting-house,  pantry, 
buttery,  laundry,  ewry,  (where  all  the  linen  was  kept)  and  garners  or 
store-house.  A  slaughter-house  also  formed  part  of  the  premises. 

After  the  death  of  Henry,  Lord  Clifford,  at  Brougham  Castle  in 
1570,  his  widow,  Lady  Anne,  Countess  of  Cumberland,  frequently 
resorted  to  the  Tower.  She  was  a  woman  of  quiet  domestic  habits 
who  cared  nothing  for  the  pomp  and  ceremonies  of  court-life  and 
always  shunned  London,  and  was  never  indeed  more  happy  than 
when  in  the  retirement  of  her  country  seat  at  Barden.  It  would 
appear  that  in  her  widowhood  she  passed  the  summer  months  here 
staying  well  on  into  the  autumn,  and  wintering  at  the  Castle  in 
Skipton,  where  she  died  in  1581.  The  following  inventory  of 
provisions  at  the  Tower  was  taken  "at  night  after  soper,  bying  the 
xvnth  day  of  October,  in  the  xvnth  year  of  our  Sovereign  Lady 
Elizabeth  (1574-5)- 

BACKHOUSM      Wheate  tlmire,   i  Inisshell 

P  UN  i  KIM      Kreade  cclxv  inde  mane  [manchet,  a  fine  bread]  xxiis 

Hl'TTKRYK      Beare  xii  ho^sheade- 

(lAKNKKS       Hi)])])- 

l-AVYKM      YVhyle  l.iyj^hts  [randies]  vi  stum-  xi  Ibs.  iii  qrts. 

KnciIYNM  Biffe,  i  [)•(-»•  iii  <jrirs.  ;  Mutton,  i  qrtr.  ii  strokes;  t'appim^  xxxviii; 
I  If  iit-s  ;  dickens  :  Sallf'yshe  iiii'  iiii"  xiii  tyshe  [.4  hundred, 

4  -.core  and  13];  Otemeill  ;  Kid  hen  tee  ;  Salt 

Si.AfdHTMK  HorsK.     Tallow  xix  sto.  ii  Ibs. 

The  next  day  we  find  another  note  about  "Whyte  liyghts,"  telling  us 
where  and   how  the  Tower   was   lighted.       There   was   expended    in 


352 

"soper-lights"'to  my  Lady's  great  chaumbre,  i,  th'  entre'  i,  th'  all,  ii, 
countyng  house  i,  small  buttre  iiii,  kitchen  iiii,  larder  iii;  starres 
[staircase]  i;  total  i  Ib.  iii  qrtrs." 

After  the  death  of  this  lady  in  1581  the  Tower  was  occasionally 
visited  by  her  son  George,  Lord  Clifford  and  his  wife,  the  Lady 
Margaret,  but  the  Earl's  extravagances  compelled  him  to  lease  it  for 
a  few  years  (1598-1605),  after  which  it  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
occupied  again  until  after  the  Civil  Wars,  when  it  was  restored  by 
the  famous  Lady  Anne  Clifford,  as  an  original  inscription  on  the 
outer  front  of  the  building  narrates. 

A  lively  picture  may  be  drawn  from  the  items  in  the  subjoined 
schedule  of  domestic  expenses  in  1510,  when  the  "Shepherd  Lord" 
was  in  possession  of  the  Barden  estate.  It  has  not  before  been 
published,  and  it  gives  us  a  glimpse  of  the  inner  life  of  the  old 
homely  fortress  in  the  Wood,  while  the  storm  was  still  brewing  which 
led  to  the  mustering  of  the  stout  hearts  of  Craven,  to  the  trimming 
of  yew-bow  and  battle-axe,  which  gloried  with  the  Forest  chief  on  the 
bloody  field  of  Flodden.  .Henry,  Lord  Clifford,  as  is  supposed, 
passed  his  young  manhood  in  concealment  as  a  shepherd  among  the 
fells  of  Blencathra,  in  Cumberland,  during  the  bitter  contest  between 
the  rival  houses  of  York  and  Lancaster,  his  father,  "the  Black-faced 
Clifford"  a  staunch  Lancastrian,  having  fallen  in  1461,  and  all  his 
estates  were  confiscated.*  The  royal  union,  however,  of  1485, 
restored  the  ancestral  titles  and  estates  when  the  "Shepherd  Lord" 
of  Skipton,  &c.,  was  in  his  thirty-first  year.  But  the  life  he  had  led 
among  the  lonely  hills  ill  fitted  him  for  the  spendours  of  the  station  to 
which  he  was  raised,  and  for  the  greater  part  of  his  life  he  chose  the 
peaceful  seclusion  of  the  Lodge  which  he  rebuilt  in  Barden  Forest. 

ABSTRACT  OF  DOMESTIC  EXPENSES  OF  THE  "SHEPHERD  LORD"  IN  1510. 

The  xxth  day  of  Octobre  Anno  re  Henr  octavi  secundo  payd  to 
Bartolemewe  Ges  yt  he  laye  downe  in  reward  to  syster  Jane  of 

Esshold  ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  iii*. 

It  to  Raype  for  corde  to  the  Clokk        ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  vid. 

It  to  Ric.  Jenkynson  yt  he  gaff  in  reward  to  the  priors  servaunt  vid. 

It  to  George  Blenkansop  yt  he  gaff  to  a   man  yt  had  his  horse 

stollen iis. 

It  in  reward  to  mason  wyffe  alms  ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  vmd. 

It  to  George  Blenkansop  for  shoying  the  sumpter  horse     ...          ...  viid. 

It  to  my  Lady  for  corde    ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  imd. 

It  payd  the  xxiiiith  day  of  Octobre       I 

for  my  lorde  expence  at  Skypton     '          ..  ...         ...         ...  inis.  id, 

It  to  herres  the  horse  m'shall       iii*.  iiiid. 

*  No  doubt  more  has  been  made  of  the  "Shepherd  Lord's"  concealment  than  the 
circumstances  warrant.  He  was  estranged  from  his  estates  it  is  true,  but  the  place  of 
his  refuge  must  have  been  generally  known.  Henry  Hartlington,  Esq.,  for  instance,  in 
his  will  dated  1467,  bequeathed  to  him  some  valuable  gifts,  including  the  squire's  own 
sword  and  a  standing  goblet  of  silver,  gifts  that  would  be  publicly  known  and  talked 
about. 


353 

Ii  to  George  Blenkansop  for  a  clothe  &  a  Brydyll    ...          ,.         ...  xx<A 

U  to  the  lokke  smyth         ...        ...        ...          ..  xii</. 

li  tin   nali"~  at  Skipton         ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  iu/. 

Il  In  l.angskerlh  lor  his  boorde   ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  xii</. 

Il  to  lederston  for  liy-  roMev  lor  herres  ...  ...  ...  ...  \-\\\d. 

It  to  Jenkynson  yt  my  lorde  borrowed  ...        ...        ...         ...  iiii//. 

Itm  for  Butter  to  the  horse          ...        ...        ...        ...        ...        ...  iiiirf. 

Itni  for  my  lord's  sumpt.'  horsemete  fro'  Appulby  to  Skypton        ...  xmis. 

It  to  Thomas  Kooke  for  his  coste  furth  of  Westmeter          ...          ...  x'lld. 

It  to  Robert  langskerth  for  his  boorde...         ...         ...         ...         ...  x\\d. 

[t  to  federston  when  he  cam  afor  furth  of  Westmeter         ...         ...  vmd. 

It  for  carreyng1  of  the  gromes  of  the  steble  bedde    ...        ...        ...  viiirf. 

It    payd   to    Kdward   Smyth   son    for  ii    Brytlyll    Bytte  and  a  plate 

locke        ...          ...         ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  ins.  niid. 

It  to  the  lockkesmyth  of  Skypton          ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  v\d. 

It  to  the  warden  of  the  freres  of  hertilpole      ...        ...        ...        ...  viiirf. 

It  payd  to  Antony  Kyrkhowse  for  an  axe        ...  ..          ...          ...  via?. 

It  for  his  dener  at  Skypton  ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  iio?. 

It  to  Kic  Jenkynson  for  the  dyse  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  v\d. 

It  to  Lowes  the  xxixth  day  of  ( )ctobre  for  carreyng  a  Swanne  from 

Appulby  ...         ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  xnd. 

It  in  reward  to  ii  masons  yt  my  lord  sent  for...        ...        ...        ...  iii.v.  mid. 

It  payd  to  Xpofer  ffederston  on  All  hallows  day  for  his  coste  into 

Nythcrdalle       ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  x\\d. 

It  payd  to  Bryan  Skayll  for  all  his  boorde  yt  is  behynde  afor  this 

day          ...          ...          ...  ..          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  vs. 

payd  to  Sir  Willm  [my  lord's  chaplain]  the  vth  day  of  Novembre 

for  a  q'ters  wage          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ....         ...  vi.v.  viiid. 

It  to  Kic  Wylkoke  the  same  day  for  a  quarters  boorde  of  the  scid 

Sir  Willm          ...         ...         ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  xs. 

It  payd  the  vith  day  of  Novebre  to  Henry  Lambart  for  his  boorde 

wag-e  afor  this  day       ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  ix.v.  ii;/. 

Nov.      It   for   Carreage   of  a  Brawne  [a    lioarj  &  oy'r  stuffr  u> 

Harden    ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  vino?. 

I'ayd   to  Thomas  Smyth  for  vi  bands  &.  vi  crokes  &  for  work vng 

of  the  same        ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  ix.v.  vii</. 

It  foi-  Spykynge        ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  iiii</. 

It  to  Thomas  Sotehill  yt  he  lent  my  lord  to  offre  to  ye  p'nyte        ...  ixd. 

It  In  J;mie*  Carr  yt  hi-  ^'aff  my  lord  to  offre  to  st-ynt   \\'illm  ...  xxd. 

It  to  the  prior  of  Bolton  for  ground  enc-lo>ed  within  the  p'ke         ..,  vi.v.  \-ili</. 

It  tor  the  tith  ol '  Harden  Skole xl^/. 

Item  to  my  lady  yt  she  layd  ilowne  to  my  lord  ol  mysrewle  and  to 

-<-viit  lay  light...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  iii.v.  inid. 

Item  for  v  playes  on  Crystemasday        ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  xiii.s.  iiii(/. 

,,     payd  to  the  playhers  of  Hallyfax  on  saynt  Thomas  day  li\ 

the  hande  of  Bart  (ic^  ...          ...         ...          ...          ...          ...  iiiii-.  \\d. 

,,     On  Newyere  day  to  the  pson  of  the  castle  for  his  coste  to  my 

lord  Conyhers  ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  v.v. 

to  our  lady  of  Bolton  light         ..          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  ii.v. 

to  a  frere    ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  ..  viiirf. 

payd  to  George  Blenkinsopp  yt  he  layd  downe  to  my  lord  &  my 

lady  and  my  mastreshis  for  ofieryng  on  ChrySCtmafi    ...          ...  \\v.  \d. 

payd  to  Henry  Ilolkar  for  a  drome  and  shavvmes  by  the  hand  of 

Barth  Ges          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  xxs. 

It  the  vith  day  of  January  to  the  hyrde  of  Crokerice  hnlf  h}'re      ...  ii.?.  vid. 


354 

It  to  the  hyrde  of  Holden  for  halfe  hyre  ...          ...          ...          ...  vs. 

It  to  Bartyll  Gcs  yt  he  layde  downe  for  the  plowe  light  in  Ylkeley  iiiirf. 

It  a  pot  ayll  at  Skypton      ...          ...          ...          ...          . ..          ...          ...  via'. 

Item  in  reward  to  the  priores  of  Esshold  ...          ...          ...          ...  xiiiis.  iiiirf. 

It  to  nir.  forster  the  same  tyme  for  ffreshe  acat'  in  Harden  ...  xs. 

It  for  the  prisoners  at  Appulby  ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  xl</. 

It  to  our  lady  lyght  at  Skypton  ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  iis. 

It  for  my  Lords  offerand  on  Candylmas  day  ...         ..,         ...         ...  xxrf. 

It  to  my  ladys  offeryng      ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  xxrf. 

It  to  my  lady  for  grene  gynger  and  treakyll  ...          ...          ...          ...  xxrf. 

It  for  iii  Sakryng  belles     ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  us. 

It  for  my  lords  offeryng' and  my  ladys  at  polles        ...         ...         ...  iii,?.  iiiirf. 

It  tor  my  lords  offeryng  on  good  fryday          ...          ...          ...          ...  vd. 

It  my  ladys  offeryng  the  .same  day         ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  \-d. 

It  my  iii  mastreshis  ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  iiirf. 

to  my  lord  at  the  sepulcre        ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  iiirt". 

My  lord  and  my  lady  when  thei  tooke  ther  rights  ...          ...  xd. 

iii  of  my  mastreshis         ...         ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  iiirf. 

It  to  a  proctor  of  seynt  Robt       ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  lit.?. 

It  to  seynt  Antony  ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...         ...  iii-. 

It  to  my  lord  to  offre  &  to  my  [lady]  at  the  resurreecon      ...          ...  v\\\d. 

my  iii  mastreshis  ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  \\\d. 

It  for  offeryng  on  seynt  george  day      ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  vmd. 

It  to  Thomas  Sotehile  for  the  mynstrelles       ...         ...         ...         ...  iiiirf. 

It  to  Mr.  Steward  for  a  levery  to  the  clokke  maker  ...          ...          ...  vis.  vd. 

It  for  a  levery  Jakkett  to  yong  Long  the  pypur          ...          ...          ...  vi.v.  vd. 

It  payd  to  John  Blenkinsopp  the  firste  day  of  may  for  the  ffeaz  of 

the  excheker  de  An  11  ...          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  iiiili.ix.v. 

Itm  payd  the  xiiiith  day  of  May  for  carreage  <>(  a  tone  wyne  from 

Yorke  to  Harden  by  the  hands  of  Roger  Wharton        ...          ...  xiiii.?. 

In   reward  to  xpofer  smyth  for  brekyng  of  a  bowe  at  the  musters  \-\\\d. 

It  for  di  a  yere  wage  afor  this  day  to  Sir  Willm         ...         ...  ..  xiii.v.  iiiirf. 

Itm  in  reward  to  a  woman  of  Skypton  for  hyr  merreage    ...          ...  iii.?.  iiiirf. 

Itm  for  a  wombyll   ...          ...  ..          ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  iiiio'. 

Itm  to  twoo  widowes  for  the  lawnde  springe  ...          ...          ...          ...   iii.?.  iiiia". 

Itm  payd  for  palyng  when  my  lord  was  at   London  of  Harden  pke 

to  Robt  Garth  by  Bardie  Ges xxv.?.  viia". 

Itm  to  Mr.  p'son  to  bye  waxe  with  to  seynt  Radagunde  at  Skypton  x\d. 

Itm  for  iii  stone  yren  [iron]  Boght  at  Penreth  ...          ...          ...  iii.  Ixd. 

My  Lords  offerand  on  relique  sonday  ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  xd. 

It  for  mendyng  the  towre  toppe  with  sodde   ...         ...         ...         ...  iirt". 

It  to  Mr.  Gerard  for  a  Pagg  pype          ...          ...         ...          ...         ...  xiiiia?. 

It  for  strynges  to  a  fedyll ...         ...         ...          ...          ...          ...          ...  i\\\d. 

It  to  John  Blenkinsopp  for  Crowners  ffee        ...          ...          ...         ...  xiii.?.  iiiirf. 

It  does  not  appear,  at  any  rate  in  his  latter  days,  to  which  these 
items  refer,  that  he  was  altogether  the  recluse  one  has  supposed  him 
to  be.  The  entries  shew  that  he  resided  at  Skipton  as  well  as  at 
Barden  Tower,  and  that  feasting,  sports  and  revelries,  formed  part  of 
the  year's  programme.  Ales,  wines,  and  delicacies  were  provided 
with  a  lavish  hand.  I  have  not  printed  these  items,  which  include 
almonds  at  3d.  per  lb.,  "well-chosen"  dates  at  4d.  per  lb.,  the  best 
prunes,  raisins,  licorice,  mace,  saffron,  &c.  Coal  must  certainly  have 


355 

been  a  luxury,  yet  I  find  Sd.  a  quarter  paid  for  "  S  quarters  of  coles." 
Salt-fish  was  brought  in  wains  from  Hartlepool,  doubtless  by  the  old 
road  through  Ripon  and  1'uteley  Mridge  over  (ireenhow  Hill. 

The  "Shepherd  Lord"  kept  the  saints'  days  with  feasts  and 
jollity  and  music,  and  right  merrily  went  the  pipes  and  fiddle-strings 
in  the  old  banqueting-hall  at  Harden  Tower.  I  find  a  company  of 
players  from  Halifax  engaged  on  St.  Thomas'  Day,  when  some  of 
the  hogsheads  of  "nut-brown"  always  kept  in  the  kitchens,  would 
grow  all  the  less  for  their  coming.  The  wooden  benches  were  then 
covered  with  hay-cushions  or  even  with  loose  hay,  and  the  men 
quaffed  their  ale  out  of  wooden  mugs,  partaking  maybe  too,  of  the 
good  old-fashioned  raisin-cake,  which  one  rarely  sees  in  the  Dales  now. 

Christmas  Day  was  kept  in  royal  style ,  scarlet-berried  hollies 
and  sprigs  of  evergreens  growing  plentifully  in  the  wide  woodlands 
around  the  old  Tower,  decked  wall  anil  buffet  and  window-sill  and 
mummers-  with  blackened  faces  went  about ;  though  painted  visages 
were  forbidden  by  law  in  1511,  two  years  before  Flodden.  There 
were  also  other  games  and  merriment  as  well  as  special  dramatic 
performances.  Strutt  tells  us  that  the  interlude  and  sermonium,  or 
secular  play  were  of  greater  antiquity  than  the  religious  plays,  and 
that  the  latter  were  taken  up  by  the  ecclesiastics  in  order  to  make 
some  of  the  gains  which  the  strolling  companies  of  tumblers,  minstrels, 
actors,  and  jugglers  used  to  make.  The  lord  of  Harden  also  favored 
by  gifts  the  old  bride-ales  or  weddings,  when  there  was  generally  a 
morris-dance,  which  also  formed  part  of  the  Easter  and  May  games. 
We  find  him  presenting  3s.  4d.  to  a  woman  of  Skipton  on  her 
marriage,  which  singularly  is  just  the  amount  of  the  fine  imposed  by 
the  Forester  of  Crookrise  on  every  bride  "  cumynge  thes  waye  who 
shulde  eyther  give  her  left  shoo  or  ins.  iiiid.  by  ryght  of  custome 
or  gatecloys  ?  That  was  at  None-go-by  (Crookrise  Lodge)  on  the 
road  between  Skipton  and  Rilston.  The  old  lord  also  kept  a  piper 
of  his  own,  and  I  find  him  paying  as  much  as  6s.  5d.,  equal  to  at 
least  ^4  of  our  money,  for  a  new  livery  jacket  for  the  braw  musician 
to  captivate  the  company  on  some  high  festival ,  or  occasionally  like 
Chaucer's  miller,  he  might  bring  the  good  folk  to  their  doors,  when 
perchance  the  bagpipes  got  played  out  and  required  replacing.  A 
new  bagpipe  it  seems  cost  is.  2d.  in  1510,  and  who  shall  doubt  that 
this  very  instrument  led  the  way  before  the  little  army  of  Craven 
warriors  that  marched  behind  the  "Shepherd  Lord"  up  dales  north- 
ward away  to  the  memorable  Field  of  Flodden  ?  The  name  of  at 
least  one  local  man  appears  in  the  list,  who  doubtless  bore  his  bow 
well  at  that  famous  engagement.  It  is  Christopher  Smith,  who  for 
his  skill  in  "  breaking  a  bow  "  at  the  muster  receives  from  my  lord  a 
reward  of  8d.  One  might  go  on  for  pages  yet,  noting  and  reflecting 
upon  the  various  items  of  interest  which  these  old  Dale  accounts 
present.  But  I  must  stop. 


356 

There  is  also  a  list  of  about  40  officers  and  servants  maintained 
at  Barden  by  the  "  Shepherd  Lord  "  whose  wages  were  paid  at  the 
Tower,  and  it  is  noteworthy  that  not  a  single  Demaine,  Petyt,  or 
Lister  (the  oldest  existing  local  families)*  is  among  them.  A 
quarter's  stipend  amounting  to  138.  4d.  each  is  paid  to  Sir  Steven 
Lancaster  and  Sir  George  Kerton,  one  of  whom  was  no  doubt 
chaplain  at  the  Tower.  The  parsons  it  appears  had  the  choice  of 
135.  4d.  in  money,  or  one  quarter  of  wheat  worth  6s.  8d.,  and  45.  in 
money,  and  one  robe  or  gown  annually,  but  they  seem  to  have 
preferred  the  cash.  The  steward's  salary  is  25$.  a  quarter.  His 
lordship  kept  his  own  barber  at  Barden,  who  receives  35.  4d.  a  quarter. 
In  1511  the  good  lord  journeyed  from  Appleby  to  London,  and  the 
cost  of  the  journey  out  and  home,  including  horses'-meat,  was 
^12  2s.  4d.  He  had  one  of  his  chaplains  with  him  and  a  numerous 
retinue,  some  of  whom  it  appears  went  from  Barden;  wages  being 
paid  by  the  steward  at  Barden  for  a  quarter  ending  Candlemas,  1511, 
"  to  trios  yt  were  att  home  when  my  Lorde  went  to  London." 
There  were  also  alms-folk  at  Barden  who  received  bi-annually  from 
his  lordship  ^3  QS.  4d.  To  all  these  hitherto  unrecorded  facts  much 
else  might  be  added. 

There  were  six  lodges  or  strong-houses  in  the  Forest  of  Barden 
at  this  time,  namely  at  Barden  (the  baronial  residence)  Drebley, 
Gamelswathf  (Gamsworth),  Holgill  (Hougill),  Laund  and  Ungayne 
(opposite  the  Abbey)  where  the  keepers  resided  who  were  responsible 
for  the  safe  custody  of  the  deer  and  other  game  ,  and  there  were 
also  two  houses  occupied  by  the  river-watchers,  whose  duty  it  was  to 
provide  fish  at  such  times  as  required  and  also  to  prevent  poaching. 
The  Tower  was  restored  in  1658-9  by  Lady  Anne  Clifford,  who  was 
born  at  Skipton,  but  was  often  at  the  Tower  when  journeying  from 
one  of  her  castles  to  another.  It  remained  entire  until  little  more 
than  a  century  ago,  when  the  lead  and  timbers  of  the  roof  were 
removed. 

The  farmhouse  and  refreshment-rooms  opposite,  where  the 
caretaker  lives,  adjoins  the  chapel,  and  may  possibly  have  been  the 
residence  of  the  chaplains  in  former  times.  Here  are  preserved 

*  There  do  not  appear  to  have  been  any  Demaines  or  Petyts  in  Wharfedale  as 
early  as  1378.  In  the  Poll  Tax  lists  for  that  year  I  find  other  French  families  such  as 
Lawpage  (Le  Page)  at  Austwick,  Paris  at  Coniston,  and  there  are  Littstres  at  Austwick 
and  Hawkswick.  The  Demaines  anciently  wrote  their  name  De  Maine,  after  the 
province  in  Normandy.  Of  this  family  was  the  late  gallant  Sergeant  Henry  Eteson 
Demaine,  grandson  of  Thomas  Speight,  of  Beeston,  Leeds,  who  was  killed  in  Oct. 
1899  in  the  terrible  charge  at  Elandslaagte  during  the  present  Transvaal  War.  Though 
only  25  years  of  age  he  was  a  noble-minded  youth;  his  last  years  having  been  spent  in 
works  of  charity,  in  attending  the  sick  and  preaching  to  the  miserable  and  fallen  in  the 
slums  of  Glasgow.  On  hearing  of  his  fall  a  special  memorial  service  was  held  in  St. 
Philip's  Church,  Leeds,  to  which  he  had  been  attached  from  a  child. 

f  Gamsworth  for  about  three  centuries  has  been  the  home  of  the  Holmes  family. 


357 

various  antiquities,  including  stone  querns  or  hand  corn  mills,  a 
Roman  spearhead,  found  here  in  August  iXo.S,  an  old  key  of  the 
Tower,  and  there  were  formerly  a  number  of  iSlh  century  halberts, 
all  dispersed  but  one,  which  remains  to  be  seen.  It  appears  that 
during  the  Stuart  rebellion  of  1745,  to  which  I  referred  on  pane  340, 
the  greatest  precautions  were  taken  in  the  parish  of  Skipton  to 
prevent  any  untoward  outbreak.  The  militia  were  called  out  and 
all  Papists  wen'  under  the  strictest  vigilance.  At  I.olton  Abbey  is  a 
manuscript  entitled  "A  Record  of  Drums.  Colours,  and  other 
Particulars  belonging  to  the  Militia,  1745,  at  1'iolton  Hall,"  from 
which  it  appears  that  there  were  then  at  Harden  Tower  45  officers 
pikes  and  stalls,  30  halberts,  30  drums,  and  .\X  drumsticks.  All 
ready  for  service  in  case  of  need. 

The  chapel,  as  appears  by  the  Cliffords  accounts  was  originallv 
a  private  foundation,  and  erected  into  a  free  church  after  the 
Reformation.  It  has  never  possessed  the  right  of  baptism  or  burial, 
but  marriages  appear  to  have  been  occasionally  celebrated  therein. 
In  the  Skipton  registers  for  February  4th  1666-7  I  find  this  entry: 

Laurence  I.owrorke  and    Julian   Demand  <>f  this   parish,   married  at   ye  Chapill   at 
Harden  Tower. 

It  is  now  served  by  the  rector  of  Bolton,  being  open  everv  Sunday 
afternoon  for  public  worship.  The  style  of  the  church  is  late 
Perpendicular,  and  of  somewhat  peculiar  construction,  with  a  porch- 
tower,  at  the  west  end.  The  windows  have  a  very  domestic 
appearance.  The  interior  was  judiciously  restored  by  the  late  Duke 
of  Devonshire  about  fort}-  years  ago.  It  contains  nothing  of  interest, 
but  there  is  a  hatchment  of  the  fifth  Duke  of  Devonshire  (who  died 
in  i<Sii)  which  unfortunately  is  inaccurately  represented.  As  a  K.d. 
his  arms  are  shewn  quartering  Boyle  on  one  shield,  surrounded  by 
the  Garter,  but  on  the  other  shield,  which,  to  be  correct,  should  have 
his  arms  empaling  those  of  his  two  wives,  only  the  arms  of  the  wives 
are  upon  it,  both  being  quarterly,  viz:  ist.  wife,  Spencer  and 
Churchill,  and  2nd  wife,  Hcrvey  and  four  quartering,  making  it  look 
like  a  shield  of  eight  quartering. 

Harden  Bridge,  like  Bolton  Bridge,  was  of  timber  up  to  about 
the  time  of  the  great  Civil  War,  when  it  was  reconstructed  of  stone. 
An  inscription  upon  it  reads  that  it  was  "repayred  at  the  charge  of 
the  whole  \\Yst  Riding,  1676." 


CHAPTER    XXIX. 


THROUGH   THE   VALLEY   OF   DESOLATION   TO   SIMON   SEAT. 

Posforth  Gill  waterfall — A  great  flood — Romantic  gorge — Bounds  of  the  Forest  of 
Harden — British  evidences — An  old  trackway  over  the  moor — Remains  of  ancient 
bloomeries — In  the  Valley  of  Desolation — Deer  still  wild  there— On  the  top  of  the 
moor — Strange  rocks  and  wild  plants— Truckle  Crags,  old  rock-shelters— Cairn  of 
the  "Devil's  Apronful" — Simon  Seat — Curious  rock  phenomena  Glorious  view 
Remarkable  depression  on  the  moor — Geological  peculiarities — Lord's  Seat — 
Boundary  of  the  Forest  of  Knaresbro'. 

HE  few  mile's  walk  from  Bolton  Abbey  through  the 
Woods  and  up  the  Valley  of  Desolation  by  Aigill 
Head  to  the  top  of  Simon  Seat  must  be  recommended 
to  every  lover  of  a  moorland  ramble.  All  that  is 
asked  of  him  is  to  keep  to  the  paths  and  close  the 
gates  he  passes  through.  The  descent  from  the  fell-top  may  be 
made  to  the  high-road,  returning  by  Harden  Bridge  and  the  Tower 
or  Strid.  Crossing  the  long  wooden  bridge  in  the  Woods  the  main 
road  may  be  followed  to  Posforth  Gill  Bridge  and  from  thence  an 
ascent  may  be  made  of  the  romantic  gill  to  the  waterfall,  or  a  nearer 
route  to  the  waterfall  is  to  ascend  the  road  to  the  Deer  Park  Lodge, 
whence  a  path  leads  direct  to  the  fall.  In  either  case  it  is  a  long 
but  pleasing  ramble,  and  on  a  bright  open  day  the  bracing  air  and 
fine  moorland  scenery  will  be  greatly  enjoyed. 

The  old  guide  used  to  relate  with  a  smile,  that  on  one  occasion 
he  accompanied  a  very  garrulous  party  of  ladies  and  gentlemen  to 
the  head  of  the  gorge,  when  one  of  the  gentlemen  remarked  to  him: 
"My  good  fellow,  how  much  further  is  it  yet  to  the  fall?"  The  old 
fellow  answered:  "Just  a  minute  or  two,  sir,  as  soon  as  the  ladies  stop 
talking  you  can  hear  the  roar  /"  And  a  marvellous  roar  there  is,  too, 
especially  if  you  can  brave  the  path  after  a  deluging  rain.  I 
remember  being  told  of  an  exceptionally  heavy  flood  which  ravaged 
the  gorge  during  a  violent  thunderstorm  about  twenty  years  ago, 
when  the  rolling  of  rocks  and  the  cracking  and  falling  of  trees  could 
be  heard  nearly  a  mile  distant.  At  that  time  there  was  a  moss-hut 
standing  upon  an  elevation  just  below  the  waterfall,  which  the  surging 
waters  completely  demolished  and  carried  away  in  a  hundred 
fragments.  The  iron  thongs  which  bound  it  to  the  rock  were 
snapped  in  twain,  and  the  monster  stone  itself  was  dislodged  and 
rolled  into  the  stream,  where  it  remains  to  this  day,  with  portions  of 
the  iron  fastenings  still  upon  it. 


359 

To  many  visitors  the  mile  or  more  of  Posforth  Gill  may  even 
be  preferred  to  the  main  valley  of  the  Wharfe,  which  it  joins.  While 
the  gill  is  much  narrower,  the  loftiness  of  the  surrounding  acclivities 
which  are  well  wooded,  with  the  rock-broken  stream  tumbling  below, 
give  it  a  grandeur  and  romantic  interest  not  found  along  the  more 
open  cour>>e  of  the  ever  beautiful  Wharfe.  The  stream  in  Posforth 


POSFORTH   GILL  WATERFALL. 


Gill  forms  one  of  the  important  boundaries  of  the  old  Forest  of 
Harden,  and  among  the  Moorhouse  (Skibeden)  papers  I  find  the 
following  seventeenth  century  citation  of  its  limits  on  this  side  of 
Wharfe,  which  may  be  fittingly  introduced  here.  In  it  mention  is 
made  of  many  familiar  and  some  unfamiliar  landmarks: 


36° 

THE  BOUNDERS  OF  THE  KKOREST  OK  BARDEN  upon  the  East  side  of  the  water  ot 
Wharfe  as  the  same  is  divyded  from  the  Manor  and  Lordship  of  Apletreewick  and  the 
fforest  ot  Knaresbrough  and  Storeths  and  Hazlewood. 

FIRST.  Beginning'  at  the  Eastsycle  of  the  Water  of  Wharfe  at  the  foote  or  nether  end 
of  one  Litle  Brooke  or  running  Water  called  ftirrbeck,  which  water  divydeth  between 
the  fforest  of  Barden  and  the  manor  of  Apletreewick,  and  following  up  the  said  ffirrbeck, 
unto  the  head  thereof,  at  head  or  upper  end  of  the  Enclosures,  and  from  thence  up  ye 
sayde  Water  unto  another  (rill  or  dough,  called  Ormsgill,  and  so  up  the  said  Gill  to  a 
place  called  Lyards  seat  and  from  l.yards  seate  upp  the  sayd  syke  unto  a  standing 
Water  on  ye  topp  of  the  Mountaine  called  the  Blay  Tarne  and  from  Blaytarne  unto  a 
standing  stone  called  the  Rocher,  atid  from  the  Rocher  eastwards  unto  ye  nether  end 
of  one  litle  sike  caller!  Seavy  syke  and  so  up  the  sayd  sike  unto  the  head  thereof.  And 
from  thence  unto  a  place  called  the  hardgate  end.  And  from  the  sayd  hard  gat  end 
unto  a  place  called  Gavling  maw  head  and  from  thence  unto  a  place  called  Black  Gutter 
and  from  the  black  gutter  unto  a  place  called  the  Earles  seate  and  from  the  Earles  Seate 
unto  a  gutter  above  Harden  head  and  from  thence  unto  Harden  head,  and  from  Harden 
head  directly  over  ye  Moss  (as  Heven  water  divydes)  unto  a  place  called  Whitwhamhead 
and  from  thence  downe  Whitwham  unto  High  gill  loot  and  -;oe  downe  Highgill  unto 
1'osforth  gill  head  and  soe  downe  Posfortli  gill  as  the  water  divydes  unto  the  water  ot 
Wharte. 

Posforth  Gill  bt-ck  is  a  vi-ry  <>ld  boundary  and  in  its  name  there 
may  lurk  some  indication  of  this,  namely  in  the  Celtic  pbs,  union  (to 
unite)  and  ford,  a  way.  Aygill  beck,  which  joins  it  higher  up, 
(corruptly  written  High  Gill  in  the  above  perambulation)  has  very 
likely  also  its  root  in  the  Goidelic  Celtic  aw,  old  Norse  c?,  meaning 
running  water,  a  stream.  We  have  plenty  of  traces  of  the  old  Britons 
in  this  moorland  territory,  and  I  have  little  doubt  that  the  substantial 
pathway  across  the  moor  from  Aigill  House,  was  originally  a  British 
trackway  leading  from  Brown  Bank  over  the  heather  to  Simon  Seat, 
whence  it  can  be  traced  no  further.  The  path  singularly  is  strewn 
with  fragments  of  iron  scoriae,  leading  us  to  suppose  the  presence  in 
former  times  of  moorland  bloomeries  somewhere  in  the  locality.  I 
have  made  many  enquiries  but  cannot  learn  where  it  has  come  from. 

Above  Posforth  Gill  waterfall  you  follow  the  path,  having  the 
beck  on  the  right,  into  the  Valley  of  Desolation  with  its  evidences  of 
the  Glacial  epoch  in  the  shape  of  massive  striated  boulders  and 
deposits  of  clay  and  debris.  The  name,  however,  only  originated 
about  seventy  years  ago  when  a  furious  storm  wrought  terrible  havoc 
among  the  oaks  and  other  growing  timber  in  this  wild  rocky  little 
valley.  Some  of  the  effects  of  that  great  storm  are  visible  even  at 
this  day  in  the  uprooted  and  scattered  trees  standing  out  black  and 
gaunt  from  the  fell  sides,  while  many  have  been  cleared  away  within 
my  own  recollection.  At  the  head  of  it  as  you  look  back  the  scene 
is  wild  and  lonely  and  is  particularly  impressive  when  viewed  in  the 
sombre  light  of  evening.  Away  to  the  south  rises  Broad  Shaw  and 
the  Nab,  where  if  you  look  along  the  crest  of  the  hill  you  are  almost 
sure  to  descry  some  of  the  native  red-deer,  which  are  avowed  to 
roam  these  fells  unmolested.  They  are  descendants  of  trie  ancient 
race  of  wild  deer,  that  once  abounded  in  the  hills  and  forests  of 


36i 

Craven.  In  1654,  b\  ,i-ivniu-m  made  between  the  Countes>  Uowager 
of  Pembroke  and  Kli/abeth  Counters  of  Cork,  ;i  herd  then  wild  was 
driven  into  the  "  Farke  of  Burden,  which  was  lately  walled  in  by  the 
said  Countess  of  Pembroke,"  there  to  remain  "until  such  time  as 
there  shall  be  a  parke  walled  in  and  made  staunch  at  Bolton  or 
Stedhouse  by  the  Countess  of  Corke."  The  herd  now  numbers  about 
forty  head,  and  in  the  summer  season  the  animals  are  very  shy.  and 
usually  seek  the  most  sequestered  spots  on  the  moors,  but  in  winter 
when  food  is  scarce  they  descend  to  the  lower  ground  and  allow 
themselves  to  be  fed. 


SUMMER   HOUSE  NEAR  SIMON   SEAT. 

Passing  now  through  a  fragrant  pine  plantation  the  path 
presently  crosses  the  beck,  and  leaving  Aygill  House  a  short  distance 
to  the  right,  veers  northward,  parallel  with  the  beck,  towards  Simon 
Seat  (1592  ft.).  Away  on  the  heather  to  the  right  is  a  large  rocking 
stone,  which  in  all  likelihood  once  possessed  properties  of  good  or 
evil,  like  the  rocking-stones  of  Brittany  and  Cornwall  .  also  there  aiv 
two  other  conspicuous  stones  a  little  to  the  north  of  it,  which  go  by 
the  names  of  "Cow  and  Calf."  Further  away,  overhanging  Redsha\\ 
Gill  the  denuded  grits  present  similar  fantastic  forms  to  those  at 
Brimham,  and  one  of  them  has  a  large  cavity  in  it,  no  doubt  due  to 
weathering.  The  country  folk  hereabouts  call  it  the  Punch  Bowl. 


362 


The  botanist  and  entomologist  too  will  find  this  a  rare  hunting-ground. 
It  is  moreover  one  of  the  very  few  localities  in  Yorkshire  where  I 
have  found  the  pure  white  heather.  Here  and  there  among  the 
heather  grows  the  hardy  cranberry  (  V.  oxycoccos)  and  there  are  large 
beds,  too,  of  the  pretty  cowberry  or  red  whortleberry  (  V.  vitis-idaa) 
with  its  pale  green  underleaves  and  red-ripe  fruit.  Many  of  the  stones 
hereabouts  present  curious  freaks  of  weathering ;  one  being  shaped 
like  a  human  head  and  has  eyes,  nose  and  mouth  complete.  Another 
looks  almost  like  a  lion  couchant,  and  a  third  has  the  appearance  of  a 
large  open-mouthed  frog,  or  even  crocodile.  These  resemblances 


SUMMIT  OF  SIMON   SEAT. 

must  have  impressed  the  old  British  denizens  of  these  high  moors, 
who  were  always  ready  to  deify  every  rock,  stone,  or  natural  object 
that  possessed  any  extraordinary  aspect  or  peculiarity. 

The  path  runs  close  beside  Truckle  Crags,  which  have  all  the 
appearance  of  British  rock-shelters  ;  the  largest  stones  having  been 
under-dug  on  the  sides  least  exposed  to  the  elements,  forming  capital, 
if  primitive,  house-shelters.  In  one  of  these  cavities,  I  have  been 
told,  -some  sheep-stealers  many  years  ago  killed  and  cut  up  one  or 
more"  sheep,  which  they^hid-  and  carried  off  piece-meal  in  bags  so  as 
to  allay  suspicion.  About  two  hundred  yards  to  the  south  of  this 
group -of  rocks  is  a  cairn  of  stones  locally  known  as  the  "Devil's 
Apronful."  It  is  about  forty  yards  in  circumference,  and  may 


possibh  (  over  the  dust  of  some  old  Celtic  hero,  governor  of  the  rude 
tribes  of  these  wild  moorlands.  An  upright  stone  below  the  cairn 
Ins  on  the  west  side  three  round  holes  in  it,  one  of  them  quite  four 
inches  deep. 

The  lofty  group  of  rocks  now  seen  ahead  of  the  famous  Simon 
Seat  (shewn  in  the  annexed  engraving  from  Mr.  Pollard's  photograph), 
are  also  most  strangely  marked,  and  it  is  difficult  to  decide  whether 
these  pecularities  are  wholly  due  to  natural  weathering,  or  whether 
some  of  them  are  not  the  result  of  human  fashioning.  Many  of  them 
are  no  doubt  concretionary  particles  due  to  an  excess  of  carbonate  of 
iron  deposited  in  the  stone  along  lines  of  bedding  and  forming  iron- 
hard  knob-like  excrescences.  The  surfaces  of  many  of  the  rocks  art- 
covered  with  these  peculiar  little  knobs  or  nipples,  with  here  and 
there  a  basin-like  cavity,  and  small  curiously-formed  orifices  and 
holes  that  look  as  if  they  had  been  purposely  drilled.  In  my  Craven 
Highlands  (1.^92)  I  have  devoted  a  few  pages  to  a  discussion  of  these 
singular  appearances  and  I  see  no  reason  to  alter  my  conclusions 
regarding  their  service  in  the  superstitious  rites  of  the  old  Britons 
whom  we  know  occupied  these  high,  commanding  moors.  That 
they  belonged  to  the  School  of  Simon  Druid,  the  Simon  Magus  of 
Scripture,  after  whom  the  hill  may  be  named,  I  think  I  have  also 
sufficiently  shewn,*  likewise  that  the  land  whereon  these  rock-nipples 
occur  is  called  after  them  Pock  Stones  Moor. 

Glorious  is  the  view  from  this  mountain  temple  on  a  bright 
summer's  day.  Readily  may  we  conceive  in  the  old  Beltein  times 
when  fires  of  thanksgiving  bla/ed  on  every  mountain  top,  the  hues 
of  a  liery  sunset  reflected  on  the  faces  of  the  assembled  throng,  while 
notes  of  praise  and  prayer  were  uttered  to  the  unknown  (liver  of  all 
earthly  good.  To  us  who  have  our  stone-built  temples  of  worship  in 
the  vales,  these  sacred  hill-shrines  of  our  pagan  ancestors  ma\  seem 
uncouth  and  strange,  yet  let  us  bear  with  them  in  reco^nixing  that  it 
was  the  same'  inscrutable  impulse  which  animated  them  as  moves  us 
to  acknowledge  the  One  great  Presence  from  whom  all  life  and  being 
proceeds ! 

About  "a  hundred  yards  to  the  east  of  Simon  Seat  is  a  lar-r 
cone-shaped  depression  in  the  surface  of  the  moor.  It  is  about  100 
feet  diameter  at  the  top  and  some  fifty  feet  deep,  without  water,  and 
has  doubtless  been  formed  through  the  subsidence  of  the  shales 
beneath  the  superimposed  millstone-grit.  There  are  several  minor 
subsidences  in  the  vicinity,  and  in  no  case  do  they  contain  water. 

*  Set'  also  Airli.  .l-'.lianu  N.S.  XV.,  23- 32,  on  British  burials  on  the  Simonside 
Hills  Northumberland.  It  is  also  to  he  noted  that,  as  \vc  learn  from  the  biography  ol 
the  Celtic  St.  Columba  (to  who-e  mission  our  modern  Yorkshire  owe-  its  Christianity), 
the  Druids  were  then  active,  and  that  they  were  regarded  as  magicians  and  sorcerers, 
and  as  such  ranked  with  Jamie*  and  Jambres  and  Simon  Mag-u-.  .V<v  Rhys'  Celtii 
firitain,  p.  70. 


The  surface  material  of  these  high  moors  is  classed  with  the  Third 
Grits  of  the  millstone-grit  series,  and  is  equivalent  to  the  Chatsvvorth 
grit  of  Derbyshire.  It  is  a  hard  massive  greyish-looking  grit,  which 
through  the  denudation  of  the  underlying  shales  has  broken  up  into 
large  rectangular  masses,  forming  a  bold  escarpment  along  the  upper 
edge  of  the  hill.  Large  quantities  have  been  broken  up  for  walling 
purposes.  About  half-a-mile  to  the  east  the  great  rocks  of  Lord's 
Seat  (1550  ft.)  stand  out  conspicuously,  and  from  which  a  long  stone 
fence  runs  southward,  forming  a  division  between  the  Forests  of 
Knaresbro'  and  Barden.  Here  the  strata  is  well  "salted"  with  quartz 
pebbles  and  dips  at  a  high  angle  to  the  north,  while  the  immense 
disjointed  masses  appear  tipped  on  end  like  huge  stranded  vessels 
wrecked  in  a  rough  sea.  And  what  a  rough  sea-like  moorland  this 
is  to  be  sure,  with  nothing  but  miles  of  broken  peat-moss  and  wiry 
heather  vanishing  to  the  sky!  It  is  delightful  to  be  out  on  these 
wide  moorlands,  breathing  the  fresh  unadulterated  air,  though 
wandering  from  the  paths  is  forbidden,  particularly  in  the  nesting 
season.  The  moors  are  the  haunt  of  the  grouse  and  curlew,  and  are 
annually  visited  by  the  Duke  of  Devonshire's  shooting-party. 

The  boundary-wall  dips  across  an  extensive  shallow  and  now 
waterless  depression  called  Dry  Tarn,  but  if  it  be  the  same  spot  as  is 
mentioned  in  the  above  perambulation,  as  I  presume  it  is,  the  proper 
name  is  Blea  or  Blay  Tarn,  possibly  a  corruption  of  the  Celt,  blaen, 
appned  to  the  source  of  a  stream.  Just  beyond  crops  up  the  old 
Celtic  boundary  in  Black  Crag,  already  explained.  See  page  199. 

If  the  descent  be  made  into  the  Skyreholme  valley  the  main 
road  to  Barden  or  Appletrewick  is  reached  by  following  the  woodland 
path  under  the  fell  into  the  picturesque  old  lane  running  by  Howgill 
and  Eastwood  Head  farm  to  Dale  Head.  The  prospect  from  the 
lane  over  the  valley  towards  Trollers  Gill  and  Appletrewick  is 
charming  and  from  no  point  of  view  does  the  lofty  summit  of  Burnsall 
Fell  stand  out  more  grandly.  By  the  road  side  is  a  venerable  mile- 
stone very  crudely  inscribed  "To  Patley  Bridge  m  6,"  a  relic  of  the 
days  when  this  was  the  main  route  into  Nidderdale. 

Dale  Head  is  one  of  the  old  homes  of  the  Bensons,  connections 
no  doubt  of  Halton  Bensons,  from  whom  Lord  Bingley  descends,  or 
of  the  Pateley  Bridge  family  from  which  descended  the  late 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 


CHAPTER     XXX. 


APPLETREWICK. 

[mportance  ot  App!etn-\vii-k  belorr  tin-  Norman  Conquest  hs  ancient  Callow- 
Manorial  history  Salt-  of  the  manor  to  Bolton  Priory  (Irani  ot  tree  \varrcn,  its 
meaning  and  Significance  History  after  the  Ketoi  mation  Old  house-  Krroneous 
conclusions — Court  rolls  of  the  manor  Old  customs  -Local  families— The  stocks — 
Ancient  mansions  Tin-  noble  family  of  Craven-  Supposed  birth-place  of  Sir  \Vm. 
Craven  Low  Hall  and  the  Proctors  Local  ancestry  of  Archbishop  Benson — 
Meaning-  of  Appletrewick. 

P  to  the  time  of  the  Viking  irruption  in  the  ninth 
century  the  sunny  little  village  of  Appletrewick  was 
probably  of  more  importance  than  its  neighbour 
Burnsall,  though  for  a  very  long  period  it  has  been  but 
a  dependent  township  of  that  ancient  parish.  In  the 
Middle  Ages  Appletrewick  had  every  year  a  great  four  days'  fair,  a 
prescription  never  extended  to  Burnsall.  Its  ancient  lords  possessed 
also  the  important  right  to  sentence,  even  to  death,  criminals  taken 
within  their  jurisdiction,  claiming  as  escheats  their  goods  and 
inheritances,  and  hanging  them  upon  their  own  gallows  within  the 
manor.  This  fact  seems  never  to  have  been  noticed  before,  and  one 
would  like  to  know  where  these  old  gallows  stood.  The  privilege 
was  undoubtedly  claimed  by  right  of  ancient  usage  long  anterior  to 
the  Norman  Conquest. 

In  the  reign  of  the  Confessor  Appletrewick,  too,  had  a  larger 
area  of  cultivated  land  than  Burnsall.  When  the  great  inquest  was 
made  in  1085-6  it  was  in  two  ownerships,  one  moiety  being  held  by 
a  Dane,  Orme,  and  the  other  by  one  Dolphin,  son  of  Thorfin,  who 
was  of  Anglo-Saxon  descent.  (Set  HKHDEN.)  Orme's  manor  was 
probably  at  Woodhouse,  an  ancient  village,  which  has  always  had  a 
capital  messuage,  and  his  name  is  preserved  in  Ormsgill,  which 
separates  that  manor  from  the  old  Forest  of  Barden.  A  daughter  of 
the  above  Dolphin  married  the  famous  noble  Gospatrick,  who  was 
lord  of  thirty-two  manors  in  1086,  and  was  descended  from  the  great 
Earls  of  Northumbria.  Soon  after  the  Conquest  both  manors 
(Woodhouse  and  Appletrewick)  became  consolidated  in  the  great  fee 
of  the  Romilles,  and  about  1150,  Adeliza  de  Romille,  the  foundn 
Bolton  Priory,  granted  half  the  estate  to  Robert  de  Bulmer,  also  six 
bovates  to  Kdulf  de  Culnese  (Kilnsey)  by  tenure  of  Knight  service. 
The  Robert  de  Bulmer  here  mentioned,  was  of  the  powerful  house  of 
Bulmer,  lords  of  Bulmer,  Co.  York,  an  old  parish-town  six  miles 
south-west  of  Malton,  which  gives  name  to  the  wapentake  of  Bulmer. 
At  Darlington  there  is  a  large  block  of  stone  railed  the  "Bulmer 


366 

Stone,"  but  nothing  is  known  of  its  history,  nor  how  it  came  by  its 
name.  It  is  supposed  to  have  been  a  memorial  of  one  of  this  ancient 
race  of  warriors.*  The  family  subsequently  obtained  the  remaining 
moiety  of  Appletrewick,  and  continued  to  hold  the  same  by  Knight 
service  of  the  superior  lords  of  the  fee.  Henry  de  Neville,  grandson 
of  the  original  grantee,  next  bestowed  part  of  the  estate,  under  the 
name  of  the  manor  of  Woodhouse,  to  the  Priory  of  Marlon  in 
Cleveland,  reserving  only  two  oxgangs  as  a  donation  to  the  Nunnery 
of  Monkton.  The  estate  at  Woodhouse  continued  in  possession  of 
Marlon  Priory  lill  its  Dissolution  in  1540.  The  manor  of 
Applelrewick,  however,  descended  lo  the  Albemarles  and  in  1204 
ihe  Earl  of  Albemarle  obtained  the  King's  leave  to  afforest  Ihe 
grealer  porlion  of  Ihe  land  here.  Consequenlly  this  large  area  was 
converled  into  a  vast  hunting-field,  no  doubt  well  stocked  with  wild 
boars,  wolves,  deer,  and  other  beasls  of  venery.  Indeed  ihe  whole 
of  Ihe  valley  from  near  Bolton  Abbey  up  to  Burnsall  was  at  this 
time  one  continuous  forest  abounding  with  big  game,  though  not 
necessarily  woodland,  as  under  the  feudal  law  a  "forest"  might 
include  Iracls  of  arable  and  paslure  ground,  commons  or  wasles;  the 
forests  moreover  being  exempt  from  ordinary  jurisdiction. 

On  the  failure  of  the  line  of  Albemarle  Ihe  manor  of  Applelrewick, 
wilh  the  rest  of  the  fee,  was  seized  by  John  de  Eslon  (Eshlon).'in 
virlue  of  his  descent  from  William  le  Gros,  Earl  of  Albemarle,  who 
had  married  Cicely,  daughter  of  William  Filz  Duncan,  by  his  wife 
Adeliza  de  Romille,  from  whom  Ihe  senior  line  of  Albemarle  descended. 
Bui  under  ihe  feudal  system  all  land  was  held  of  the  King,  and 
however  great  or  powerful  were  the  lords  of  manors  they  were  but 
his  vassals  and  were  bound  to  shew  their  tille  by  charier  from  ihe 
sovereign,  as  lord  paramount  At  this  lime  Edward  I.  was  in  Ihe 
Holy  Land  and  did  nol  return  till  1274,  and  within  the  next  few 
years  when  the  king  was  at  liberty  to  legislate  after  collecting  a  vast 
amounl  of  evidence,  an  agreemenl  was  come  lo  by  which  Ihe  honor 
of  Skiplon  was  retained  by  ihe  King,  reserving  Ihe  manor  of 
Applelrewick,  among  olher  possessions,  lo  Ihe  said  John  de  Eshlon. 
Happily  Ihis  was  an  era  of  peace  and  prosperily  and  Ihe  King  sel 
aboul  lhal  wise  adminislralion  of  Ihe  affairs  of  Ihe  realm  which  has 
earned  for  him  Ihe  lille  of  Ihe  English  Justinian.  In  the  first  thirleen 
years  of  his  reign  (1272-84)  more  was  done  lo  sellle  and  eslablish 
ihe  dislribulive  juslice  of  Ihe  kingdom,  declares  Sir  Matthew  Hale, 
than  in  all  the  ages  since  that  time  put  logelher.  This  monarch 
established  and  confirmed  Ihe  Greal  Charier  and  Charier  of  Foresls, 
and  secured  Ihe  properly  of  Ihe  subjecl  by  abolishing  all  arbilrary 
taxes,  and  lallages,  levied  wilhoul  consenl  of  the  national  Council. 
He  instituled  a  commission  of  enquiry  inlo  ihe  lilies  of  lordships 

*  See  Historical  .Votes  oj  the  Baronial  Hvtmc  «/  Rulnu-r,  p.  9. 


3*7 

throughout  the  kingdom,  with  all  their  appurtenant  prerogatives, 
which  there-  is  no  doubt  had  been  greatly  abused  by  the  lords 
themselves  for  many  years  before  that  time. 

With  respect  to  Appletrewick,  James  de  Kston  was  summoned 
to  answer  the  lord  kin-  by  a  writ  de  </uo  7carni/ii<>,  which  I  do  not 
lind  anywhere  quoted,  though  it  is  of  no  little  importance  in  the 
constitutional  descent  of  the  manor.  He  was  called  upon  to  shew 
by  what  warrant  he  claimed  to  have  "  a  free  mine  of  lead  and  iron, 
of  beer,  toll,  stallage,  and  gallows  in  Appletrewick,  which 
belong  to  the  Crown."  The  said  James  went  into  court  and  said 
that  John  de  Kston  gave  him  the  manor  with  four  bovates  and  a 
culture  called  Kalegarth,  with  the  mines  and  all  other  liberties 
thereto  belonging,  as  he  had  received  the  same  from  the  lord  king. 
But  in  the  course  of  his  examination  it  was  shewn  that  the  said  gift 
had  not  been  ratified  by  the  king,  a  matter  that  must  be  attended  to. 

This  James  de  Eston  sold  the  manor  to  the  Prior  and  Convent 
of  Bolton,  and  the  compotus  of  the  Abbey  shews  that  in  A.D.  1300 
the  Prior  journeyed  to  Rome  in  order  to  obtain  the  necessary  powers 
to  purchase.  The  same  year  they  paid  the  said  James  tie  Eshton 
^14  is.  4d.  in  part  payment  for  the  manor  of  Appletrewick,  and  for 
charters  of  the  lord  king  for  the  transfer  was  paid  32*.  4d.  In 
1310  the  monks  were  fortunate  in  obtaining  great  privileges  within 
their  manor  of  Appletrewick,  as  appears  by  the  following  hitherto 
unpublished  charter. 

(IRANI     01      I  KM      \\AKKKN    AM)    A    IAIK    IN    A  i'l'I.l-  I  Kl  \\  H 'K     lo     I  1 1  H    I'KIOK    AND 

I'MNVKM   01    Hoi. ION  IN  CKAVI  \. 

The  Kin^  to  hi--  Archbishop-.  Xc.  greeting1  know  ye  that  We  at  the  instance  of  our 
beloved  and  trusty  Peter  de  Gauaston  Karl  <>l  Cornwall  have  granted  and  by  this  our 
charter  have  Confirmed  to  Our  beloved  in  Christ  the  Prior  and  Convent  of  Koulton  111 
Craven  that  they  and  their  successors  tor  ever  may  ha\  e  tree  warren  in  all  their  demesne 
lands  of  their  manor  of  Appletrewick  in  the  Co.  of  York.  While  however  such  lands  be 
not  within  the  metes  of  our  forest  So  that  no  one  shall  enter  such  lands  to  hunt  in  these 
to  hunt  in  them  or  to  take  anything  which  to  the  Warren  belongs  without  the  licence 
and  will  of  the  aforesaid  Prior  and  Convent  or  their  -ucc< --.MM --  upon  lorleiture  to  u-  of 
ten  pound-.  And  that  they  may  have  a  lair  every  year  at  their  Manor  aforesaid  lasting 
for  four  days  to  wit  for  two  days  before  the  feast  ot  St.  I. uke  and  on  the  day  and 
morrow  of  the  same  feast  unless  such  fair  be  to  the  hurt  of  neighbouring  fairs  wherefore 
We  will  and  firmly  command  for  us  and  our  heir-  that  the  aforesaid  Prior  and  Convent 
and  their  successor-,  tor  ever  may  have  tree  warren  in  all  their  dcme-ne  lands  aforesaid 
while  however  &c.  So  that  &c.  And  that  they  may  have  the  aforesaid  fair  at  their  manor 
aforesaid  with  all  liberties  and  free  customs  to  such  fair  appertaining  unless  \c.  a-  i- 
aforesaid.  These  being-  witnesses  the  venerable  father  W.  bishop  of  Worcester  our 
Chancellor  Gilbert  de  Clare  Karl  of  Gloucester  and  Hertford  John  de  Warren  Karl  of 
Surrey  Henry  de  Percv  Robert  de  Clifford  Ralph  son  of  William  Robert  -on  of 
Pagan  Steward  of  our  household  and  other-.  Given  at  New  Monastery  the  ninth  day  ot 
Sept.  by  wit  of  privy  seal. 

The  feudal  monarchs  had  jealously  protected  the  wild  game  of 
the  country,  and  upon  the  introduction  of  the  forest  laws  at  the 
Norman  Conquest  no  man  was  allowed  to  destroy  any  animal  without 


368 

royal  leave,  under  the  severest  penalties.  He  dare  not  even  kill  a 
wolf  that  was  attacking  his  own  child.  In  Saxon  times,  though  no 
one  was  permitted  to  kill  or  chase  the  King's  deer,  yet  he  had  the 
liberty  to  start  any  game,  pursue  and  kill  it,  upon  his  own  estate. 
For  ten  years  the  canons  of  Bolton  however,  dare  not  take  as  much 
as  a  rabbit  from  their  own  estate  at  Appletrewick,  but  when  they  got 
the  King's  license  of  free  warren,  no  doubt  they  employed  a  keeper, 
and  as  the  charter  ordains,  the  fine  for  poaching  was  extremely 
severe.  There  was  a  statute  in  force  at  this  time  by  which  a  poacher 
was  compelled  to  stand  when  called  upon,  on  pain  of  being  shot.  The 
beasts  of  warren  included  no  large  game  ,  only  such  as  woodcocks, 
herons,  partridges,  pheasants,  hares  and  conies.  A  coney  is  said  to 
be  a  rabbit  of  more  than  one  year.  Rabbits,  though  believed  to 
have  been  introduced  by  the  Romans,  were  by  no  means  common  in 
England  for  some  time  after  the  Norman  Conquest.  The  accounts 
of  Exeter  College,  Oxford,  for  A.D.  1361,  shew  that  they  then  fetched 
in  that  part  of  the  country  4d.  or  5d.  each,  equal  to  55.  or  6s.  of 
present  money.  But  this  was  a  time  of  national  scarcity  and  large 
numbers  had  been  captured  and  eaten  to  stave  off  famine.  A  century 
later  they  had  greatly  increased,  and  at  the  banquet  given  at  the 
installation  of  Archbishop  Neville,  at  York,  in  1465,  4000  rabbits  are 
recorded  as  having  been  consumed. 

Shortly  after  the  suppression  of  Bolton  Priory  the  manor  of 
Appletrewick  was  granted  in  fee  to  Sir  Christopher  Hales,  Kt.  Master 
of  the  Rolls,  and  in  1545  was  in  possession  of  Thomas  Proctor  of 
Cowper  Cotes,  who  sold  it  in  that  year  to  Sir  Arthur  Darcy,  Kt., 
facts  not  noticed  by  Whitaker.  The  title  brought  with  it  the  right 
to  continue  the  fair,  though  on  what  days  it  continued  to  be  held  I 
have  not  ascertained.  In  Wm.  Storr's  "  Booke  of  Remarks  "  (A.D. 
1700)  the  sheep  fair  is  stated  to  be  held  on  Oct.  i4th  and  for  beasts 
the  day  following.  In  1830  it  was  held  on  Oct.  25th  (eleven  days 
having  been  omitted  from  the  calendar  in  1752)  for  horses  and 
horned  cattle.  The  importance  of  the  fair  dwindled  with  the  spread 
of  railways  and  ceased  altogether  about  forty  years  ago.  Old  folks 
however  remember  the  sight,  and  the  scene  of  life  and  bustle  the 
road  presented  on  the  annual  fair-day.  Immense  quantities  of  onions 
were  brought  into  the  "town,"  and  sold  wholesale  and  retail.  Indeed 
this  came  to  be  the  staple  article  of  sale,  and  for  many  years  the 
event  was  generally  spoken  of  as  "  Ap'trick  Onion  Fair." 

Going  down  the  street  on  the  right  hand  there  is  a  small 
picturesque  Stuart  building,  standing  north  and  south,  with  a  flight 
of  stone  steps  leading  up  to  the  doorway,  which  is  often  ridiculously 
spoken  of  as  the  Chapel  of  the  monks  of  Bolton,  though  obviously 
erected  more  than  a  century  after  the  dissolution  of  the  monastery. 
But  this  is  only  one  among  many  other  instances  of  false  dates  put 
upon  buildings  in  the  dale.  The  cottage  adjoining  has  a  partly 


369 

vvalled-up  doorway  (now  a  window)  with  the  date  1697  over  it,  and 
in  one  of  the  inner  rooms  is  a  fire-place  inscribed  R.T.  1696,  with  a 
disfigured  device  between  the  initials  and  date. 

In  1549  the  manor,  with  appurtenances,  was  sold  by  Sir 
Arthur  Darcy,  Kt.,  for  ^2,000  to  Sir  John  Vorke,  Kt.,  Lord  Mayor 
of  London  (who  died  in  1568)  the  head  of  a  family  now  represented 
by  Thomas  Edward  Yorke,  Esq.,  of  Bewerley  Hall,  in  the  adjoining 
valley  of  tin-  Nidd.  The  conveyance  carried  with  it  the  privilege, 
supported  by  immemorial  usage,  of  digging  for  minerals  and  holding 
courts.  The  extant  court-rolls  of  the  manor  commence  in  1620,  but 
contain  little  of  interest  beyond  the  names  of  tenants  and  jurors  who 
assembled  at  the  annual  holdings  of  the  court  in  October.  The 
annual  perambulations  of  the  boundary  of  the  manor  were  evidently 
a  much-looked  for  event,  bringing  out  most  of  the  male  population 
of  the  neighbourhood  who  were  able  to  mount  the  hills  and  traverse 
the  rough  country  that  lay  on  the  line  of  march.  According  to  the 
.old  churchwardens'  accounts,  which  have  been  carefully  edited  and 
printed  by  the  rector  of  Burnsall,  the  Rev.  YV.  J.  Stavert,  M.A.,  it 
appears  that  two  days  were  usually  absorbed  in  these  perambulations, 
the  first  day  in  traversing  the  bounds  of  Burnsall  while  the  second 
was  devoted  to  Appletrewick.  One  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago 
more  than  2os.  was  generally  spent  by  the  parish  officials  in  cheese 
and  cakes  and  ale  on  each  day  of  the  gatherings.  And  lively  and 
merry  days  they  must  have  been,  parson  and  churchwardens  and 
school  children  all  joined  in  celebrating  the  event.  In  1709  however, 
the  stipulated  expenditure  on  these  occasions  was  to  be  no  more 
than  14*. 

It  seems  that  in  1724  there  were  ninety  inhabited  houses  in 
Burnsall-with-Thorp,  Appletrewick,  and  Hartlington,  and  allowing 
five  persons  for  each  house,  the  population  would  then  be  about  450. 
In  1835  the  township  of  Appletrewick  alone  had  just  that  number, 
while  Burnsall  had  250,  and  Hartlington  120.  Since  then  there  has 
been  a  great  decline,  due  to  remoteness  from  railway  traffic  ,  the 
population  of  the  whole  parish  being  registered  in  1891  as  429. 
Formerly  there  was  a  good  business  done  in  cotton-spinning  and 
manufacturing,  and  in  the  fourteenth  century  there  was  a  good  deal 
of  weaving,  dyeing,  and  fulling  done  in  the  village,  but  in  recent 
times  the  life  of  the  place  has  been  purely  pastoral  and  agricultural, 
the  sweet  air  and  quiet  thrifty  habits  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  pleasant 
part  of  Wharfedale  being  greatly  conducive  to  health  and  longevity. 

I  should,  however,  state  that  a  smithy  has  existed  here  almost 
from  the  era  of  the  Norman  conquest,  and  payments  to  the  blacksmith 
of  Appletrewick  occur  in  the  accounts  of  Bolton  Abbey  as  far  back  as 
the  reign  of  the  first  Edward.  In  1378  John  Young,  jun.,  was  the 
village  blacksmith,  and  this  family  in  recent  times  lived  at  the  High 
Hall.  Seventy  years  ago  Wm.  Gill  and  Thomas  Hargrave  were  the 


37° 

local  smiths  .  Gill  had  a  bit  of  land  besides,  and  his  son,  John  Gill, 
farmed  the  glebe  lands  under  the  rectors  of  Burnsall  for  many  years 
and  was  also  chief  sheep-keeper  on  the  extensive  fells  of  Burnsall  and 
Thorpe.  He  afterwards  took  Ryshworth  Hall  farm,  Bingley,  where 
he  died  in  1892.  The  blacksmith's  father,  Robert  Gill,  was  the 
principal  initiator  of  local  Wesleyanism  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  the  first  Wesleyan  missionaries  preached 
from  the  old  horseing-steps  which  stood  beside  his  house  at  Burnsall. 

The  Burnsall  parish  accounts  also  shew  that  the  Inmans,  a  very 
old  family  here,  were  smiths  and  wheelwrights  in  the  parish  170  years 
ago.  Some  of  the  family  for  a  long  time  lived  in  the  old  house  at 
Gateup,  one  of  whom,  Thomas  Inman,  died  there  in  1603,  and  left  a 
will  proved  in  the  Exchequer  Court  of  York,  2oth  July,  1603.  John 
Moorhouse,  of  Skipton,  a  member  of  the  same  family  mentioned  on 
page  338,  married  in  January,  1612-13,  Mary  Inman,  and  afterwards 
resided  at  Wood  End,  Barden.  His  son,  Brian  Moorhouse,  was 
baptised  at  Burnsall,  November  i2th,  1613,  and  was  probably  the 
same  Brian  Moorhouse  who  purchased  Gill  Bottom,  Norwood,  in  the 
parish  of  Fewston,  from  the  Fairfaxes  about  1650,  which  his 
descendants  of  the  name  continued  to  occupy  for  230  years. 

There  are  two  comfortable  long-established  hostelries  at 
Appletrewick,  the  New  Inn  and  Craven  Arms,  and  near  the  latter 
stands  the  old  village  stocks, — how  old,  who  shall  say?  They  tell, 
however,  of  some  importance  in  bygone  times,  for  an  Act  was 
passed  in  1405  ordering  "  every  town  and  village  in  the  King's 
realm  "  to  provide  a  pair  of  stocks,  only  such  places  to  be  exempted 
as  came  within  the  definition  of  a  hamlet.  Care  has  been  taken 
here  of  this  old-time  relic  and  in  1894  it  was  restored  and  the  whole 
set  in  concrete.  The  importance  of  Appletrewick  in  former  ages 
is  still  evidenced  by  the  presence  of  two  or  three  substantial  old 
mansions,  doubtless  built  on  the  sites  of  still  older  ones.  But  no 
little  interest  attaches  to  a  small,  low  building  which  up  to  three 
years  ago  stood  in  the  main  street  on  the  site  of  the  present  neat 
chapel-of-ease  to  Burnsall.  Here  in  this  humble  cottage,  of  which 
I  am  privileged  to  give  a  view  by  the  courtesy  of  the  rector  of 
Burnsall,  it  is  traditionally  held  that  the  famous  Sir  William  Craven 
was  born  about  1548.  He  rose  to  wealth  and  eminence  in  the  city 
of  London,  was  Sheriff  in  1600-1,  became  Lord  Mayor  in  1610-11 
and  was  ancestor  of  the  Earls  of  Craven.  He  built  Burnsall 
Grammar  School  in  1602.  The  site  and  cottages  have  for  an 
indefinite  period  belonged  to  the  family.  The  exterior  aspects  of 
the  cottages  are  distinctly  later  than  the  time  of  Henry  VIII.,  but 
it  is  evident  they  have  undergone  alteration.  It  is  also  noteworthy 
they  have  upper  chambers,  a  circumstance  of  rare  occurrence  in  the 
humbler  country  dwellings  of  Henry  VIII. 's  time.  Some  doubt 
must  always  exist  as  to  the  real  home  of  his  birth,  which  is 


just   as  likely   to    have   been   at    the  old    Hall   on  the  opposite   side  »>t 
the  road. 

The  stories  of  the  -Teat  man's  early  poverty  and  of  his  entering 
London  shoeless  and  penniless  are  no  doubt  exaggerated.  Of 
course  money  was  not  plentiful  among  tenant  farmers  so  soon  after 
the  dissolution  of  monasteries,  but  there  is  evidence  at  any  rate  to 
shew  that  the  C  ravens  of  Appletrewick  even  at  that  time  w< 
well-off  as  any  tenant  family  in  Upper  \Vharfedale.  The  subsidy- 
rolls  for  1523  state  that  Henry  Craven  was  taxed  on  goods,  2os., 
while  twentx  vears  later  there  were  three  families  of  the  name  in 


REPUTED  BIRTHPLACE  OF  SIR  WM.  CRAVEN,  APPLETREWICK. 

Appletrewick  all  contributing  substantially  to  the  imperial  taxes  on 
the  value  of  their  moveable  effects,  such  as  cattle.  They  were  in 
fact  the  principal  taxpayers.  But  apart  from  their  comfortable 
circumstances  the  fact  will  always  create  the  liveliest  interest  that 
from  the  obscurity  of  this  remote  Wharfedale  village  sprang  one  who 
attained  honors  and  wealth  quite  unrivalled  in  his  day  and  generation. 
From  a  very  valuable  and  exhaustive  paper  on  the  lineage  of  the 
family  by  the  present  rector  of  Burnsall,*  I  gather  there  were  two 
families  of  Craven  living  at  Appletrewick  in  the  early  part  of  the 

r«>;-X-v.   .  In  html,   /'iiinidl,   XIII.  pp.  440-4X0,. and  XIV.  p.  -'44-5. 


372 

iyth  century.  The  head  of  one  house  was  Thomas  Craven,  who 
was  born  in  1611,  and  in  1649  is  described  as  of  Elm  Tree 
in  Appletrewick.  He  had  a  son  Anthony,  described  in  1660,  as 
"gentleman"  of  Appletrewick,  and  in  the  year  following  was  granted 
a  baronetcy  as  Anthony  Craven  of  Sparsholt,  Co.  Berks,  and  he  was 
also  knighted  the  same  year.  The  above  Thomas  Craven  in  1672 
paid  hearth-money  for  his  house  at  Appletrewick,  a  fact  by  itself 
sufficient  to  establish  a  certain  status,  as  the  levy  was  imposed  only 
on  those  houses  paying  to  church  and  poor.  There  is  a  probability 
that  he  was  then  living  at  the  old  hall  now  standing  at  the  top  of 
the  village,  and  I  will  quote  what  Mr.  Stavert  says  on  the  subject. 

The  old  house  at  Appletrewick  was  probably  built  in  1667,  and  there  is  what  may 
once  have  been  part  of  an  old  porch  or  gateway,  inscribed  with  that  date  and  the 
letters  T.C.  In  the  wall  of  a  barn  close  by  there  is  a  stone  upon  which  has  been  cut 
W.C.  1665.  Tradition  says  that  it  is  built  upon  the  site  of  an  older  house  called  Elm 
Tree,  and  there  is  still  standing-  outside  the  gate  a  large  specimen  of  this  kind  of  tree, 
which  may  be  of  any  age,  to  attest  the  fact.  If  the  Thomas  Craven,  whose  will  has 
just  been  noticed,  was  the  owner  and  builder  of  the  house,  it  would  seem  that  somehow 
he  had  succeeded  to  the  property  once  in  the  possession  of  the  other  family,  as  will 
appear  from  the  lists  of  names  which  have  already  been  given.  There  is  a  coat-of- 
arms  over  the  fireplace  in  one  of  the  rooms  which  is  the  same  as  that  now  borne  by  the 
Craven  family,  but  without  motto,  coronet,  or  supporters.  The  cottage  in  which  the 
Alderman  is  said  to  have  been  born,  stands  just  opposite  the  Hall,  on  the  other  side  ot 
the  road,  but  is  rapidly  falling  into  decay  [1895]. 

Most  likely  there  has  been  a  hall  on  the  site  from  the  Norman 
settlement,  if  not  before,  though  it  is  not  mentioned  until  about  the 
year  1280  when  the  estate  was  confirmed  to  John  de  Eston.  It  was 
then  described  as  a  "capital  messuage,"  and  erected  during  an  era 
of  great  building  activity,  had  probably  some  of  the  characteristics 
still  existing  about  Grassington  Old  Hall.  The  present  mansion,  now 
a  farm-house,  is  a  sturdy  specimen  of  a  yeoman's  residence  of  the 
middle  of  the  iyth  century.  It  possesses,  however,  features  only  to 
be  found  in  superior  homesteads  of  this  time,  including  a  large  hall 
with  minstrels'  gallery,  like  the  stately  mansion  of  the  Murgatroyds  at 
East  Riddlesden  in  the  parish  of  Bingley,  erected  about  the  same 
time.  The  oak  screen  in  the  dining-hall  is  of  excellent  workmanship, 
and  the  design  has  been  copied  in  the  uppermost  portion  of  the  new 
screen  in  Burnsall  Church,  and  cleverly  executed  with  other  work  in 
the  church  by  a  parishioner,  Mr.  Richard  Clark.  The  Hall  is  now 
the  property  of  the  Earl  of  Craven. 

Low  Hall  is  another  good  house,  which  for  several  years  has 
been  tenanted  by  Mr.  Chas.  Rickards,  of  Bell  Busk.  It  appears  to 
have  been  built  by  a  Thomas  Preston  during  the  Interregnum,  and 
afterwards  passed  to  the  Cavendish  family,  who  sold  it  to  the 
Proctors  of  Kirkby  Malham  about  forty  years  ago.  Above  the 
principal  entrance  it  is  recorded  that  the  house  was  restored  in  1868 
and  there  appear  the  initials  w  A. p.  and  K  p.  [Win.  and  Robert  Proctor.] 
The  old  oak  door  has  a  rather  handsome  hinge,  and  the  entrance 


373 

hall  is  oak-panelled  to  ;t  height  of  thirty  fert  and  possesses  .1  iiiu- 
broad  oak  stairr.tM-.  On  an  outbuilding  I  noticed  the  initials  and 
date  I. P.  1690.  Another  old  house  at  the  top  of  the  village  is 
inscribed  T.N.  1688.  After  the  Civil  Wars  money  began  to  accumulate 
and  much  building  was  the  consequence.  Largely  through  the 
exertions  of  the  present  rector  of  Burnsall,  ably  supporu-d  by 
parishioners  and  friends,  the  little  chapel  at  Appletrewick  was  erected 
in  1897-8.  It  is  a  small  but  neat  stone  edifice  dedicated  to  St.  John 
the  Baptist,  the  patron  of  the  Merchant  Taylors'  Company,  in  which 
Sir  Wm.  Craven  was  conspicuously  interested.  The  chapel  was 
opened  on  May  3rd,  1898,  by  the  Bishop  of  Ripon,  in  the  presence 
of  Evelyn,  Countess  of  Craven,  Miss  Farquharson,  of  Invercauld,  and 
many  of  the  local  clergy  and  gentry.  The  Bishop  delivered  an 
eloquent  address  on  the  "Cleansing  of  the  Temple,"  and  the  event 
will  long  be  remembered. 

It  is  impossible  for  me  to  mention  the  many  native  families  and 
individuals  who  have  won  a  respectable  position  in  the  conduct  of 
local  and  even  national  affairs  during  the  centuries  that  have  gone  by. 
The  good  old  Grammar  School  at  Burnsall,  is  responsible  for  much 
of  the  training  that  effected  the  after-distinction  of  many  a  native  son 
and  daughter  of  the  soil.  In  the  old  parish  accounts  I  find  the  death 
recorded  of  the  Rev.  Peter  Alcock,  rector,  in  1773,  and  in  this  year 
there  was  married  a  certain  Bridget  Clark,  of  Appletrewick,  to 
Christopher  Benson,  landlord  of  the  old  Crown  Inn  at  Pateley  Bridge, 
a  noted  posting-house,  where  he  died  in  1765,  and  shortly  afterwards 
the  property  realised  some  ^"SOQO.  Christopher  Benson  also 
established  a  large  business  with  York  as  a  factor  and  amassed 
considerable  wealth.  Their  son  Edward  Benson  lived  in  Kirkgate 
House  close  to  Ripon  Minster,  and  was  father  of  Captain  White 
Benson,  who  served  in  the  Irish  rebellion  of  1798,  and  he  was 
grandfather  of  the  Rt.  Hon.  and  Most  Rev.  Edward  White  Benson, 
D.D.,  the  late  popular  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  Thus  by  descent 
from  the  marriage  of  this  rustic  maid  of  Appletrewick  sprang  the 
distinguished  Primate  of  All  England.  Other  important  matrimonial 
alliances  might  also  be  adduced,  and  one  such  "royal  descent"  from 
a  local  yeoman's  daughter  I  will  mention  in  the  notice  of  Percival 
Hall,  or  as  it  is  locally  called  Parcivall  Hall. 

I  may  just  add,  in  conclusion,  that  the  name  Benson  is  said  to 
be  of  Scandinavian  origin  and  was  originally  Bjornson,  "son  of  the 
bear,"  and  has  lately  come  to  the  front  in  Martinus  Bjornsen,  the 
Norse  poet.  Singularly  the  name  Burnsall  appears  to  have  the  same 
meaning,  namely  the  hall  or  seat  of  Bjorn,  the  original  Norse  settler, 
as  explained  elsewhere.  Appletrewick,  I  should  further  add,  is  most 
likely  from  the  Teutonic  apcl  (apple)  tieo  (tree)  and  wick  (village), 
though  some  may  assert  that  in  the  prefix  "Apple"'  lurks  a  corruption 
of  the  original  owner's  name,  as  it  was  the  custom  to  plant  trees  in 


374 

certain  localities  identified  by  the  names  of  their  owners,  as  Allerstree 
(Adelard's  tree)  Oswestry  (Oswald's  tree)  and  perhaps  also  Daventry 
and  Coventry.  According  to  Vigfusson  the  Norse  epli  equivalent  to 
the  Celtic  afal,  became  apal  in  compound  names,  as  in  the  Domesday 
interpretation  of  Appleby,  the  seat  or  town  of  some  famous  or  large 
apple-tree.  It  is  contended,  however,  by  Dr.  M.  W.  Taylor*  that 
Appleby  is  Hicllpeby,  or  the  town  of  Hialp,  a  personal  name  that  is 
found  in  the  Sagas,  and  is  not  unlikely  to  have  been  the  name  of  the 
original  Norse  settler  at  Appleby.  Locally  the  name  is  pronounced 
Veppleby,  and  the  prefix  is  doubtless  the  same  which  occurs  in  such 
places  as  Whelp  Castle,  Whelphow,  and  Whelpstones  Crag.  In 
Domesday  our  VVharfedale  village  is  spelled  Apletreuuic,  and  I  have 
preferred  to  write  the  modern  name  with  a  single  "e"  as 
approximating  more  nearly  to  the  Saxon  original.  Locally  it  is  always 
"Ap'trick."  The  apple  is  a  true  native  of  England,  while  such  as 
raspberries,  strawberries,  and  cherries  were  not  grown  in  England  till 
Henry  VIII's  time.  The  tree  at  Appletrewick  was  in  all  probability 
in  a  place  appointed  for  the  meetings  of  the  village  council,  whence 
the  Anglo-Saxon  treo-w,  a  pledge,  treaty  or  convention.  But  it  is  quite 
possible  to  have  been  originally  a  gallows-tree,  as  explained  by  Sir 
James  Ramsay. 


Tin'  <>ld  Manorial  Halls  of  Westmorland  and  ( 'tunbi-rlaiid,  p.  124. 


CHAPTKK     XXXI 


UP    THE     D.A1.K    TO     BURNSALT,. 

A  lovely  drive  through  the  Forest  of  Barden — Old  Forest  lodges- -Club  Nook    -Rustic- 
simplicity      Drebley      Prospect     from    Burnsall     Fell     Side     \Yoodhcuise     and     the 
Blands     Ancestral    connections    with     Lord     Nelson  Old     hou-.cs    and     families 
Hartlington     Local    properties   of    the    Knights    of  St.    John    of    Jerusalem     The 
.Metcalfe  family     Manorial  records  -Feudal  obligations — Some  errors  corrected 
Hartlington    Hall,   the  residence   of    Lt.-Col.    I  )awsoii     The   old    manor-house  and 
chapel     An  old  inn     Ancient  family  of  Dibb     Skyreholme   -Percival  Hall  and  the 
Lowsons     A   notable  marriage — The  Inman  family — The  gorge  of  Trailers  Gill 
Descent  of  Hell  Hole — Geological  aspects. 


of  the  most  charming  eight  mile  drives  in  England 
is  that  from  Bolton  Abbey  to  Burnsall.  A  public 
conveyance  meets  the  morning  train  at  Bolton  Abbey 
station,  and  taking  the  pleasant  road  close  to  the  ruins 
of  the  old  Priory,  passes  the  historic  Barden  Tower 
(sec  page  350)  and  thence  "up  dale"  amid  flowery  meads  and 
shepherded  fells  to  "Bonnie  Burnsall."  The  capable  pedestrian 
should,  however,  proceeed  through  the  famous  Woods  by  the  Strid 
to  Barden  Bridge,  whence  a  foot-path  conducts  through  fields  over 
Gill  Beck,  which  comes  down  from  Thorpe  Fell,  with  Sim  Bottom  (so 
called  after  an  old  local  family)  on  its  eastern  verge,  by  Club  Nook 
on  to  the  highroad  near  Hole  House  and  Drebley.  By  this  route  he 
passes  through  the  heart  of  the  ancient  Forest  of  Barden,  so 
celebrated  in  former  days  for  its  packs  of  wolves  and  wild  boars. 

Some  of  the  old  Forest  Lodges  still  exist,  though  the  houses 
have  been  rebuilt.  Quaint  old  thatches  they  were  in  bygone  days, 
pretty  much  like  that  which  stood  at  Club  Nook  a  few  years  back,  a 
••single-decker"  nearly  eighty  feet  long,  with  its  rooms  ranged  on 
each  side  of  the  main  entrance  and  roof  open  to  the  thatch.  Now 
the  houses  have  "chambers"  and  the  farm-folk  having  their  annual 
inrush  of  "  visitors",  must  perforce  put  aside  every  appearance  of 
"antiquity"  and  be  up-to-date  in  all  the  appurtenances  of  comfort 
and  convenience.  The  farmer  does  not,  like  his  grandsire,  follow  the 
old  ways  and  methods.  He  does  not  weigh  the  wool  in  a  cross-beam 
over  the  field-gate  with  two  or  three-stone  boulders,  nor  his  dame 
sell  her  butter  by  the  guage  of  a  pair  of  tongs,  a  cobble-stone  or  a 
flat-iron.  In  those  blissful  days  when  wisdom  alone  made  man 
miserable  and  to  be  ignorant  was  to  be  happy,  how  we  wish  to  task- 
their  pleasures  once  again  when  we  read  such  a  tale  of  rural 
innocence  as  the  following!  A  traveller  in  the  upper  dale,  I  am  told 
once  called  at  a  farm-house  desiring  to  purchase  a  pound  of  sweet, 


376 

home-made  butter.  The  pound  weight,  however,  could  not  be  found. 
Suddenly  the  old  dame  bethought  herself  of  a  capital  substitute, 
exclaiming  as  she  went  to  the  side  of  the  house  "Here,  noo,  we'll 
manage  it.  Here's  a  pair  o'  tangs  my  guidman  brought  hame 
yestreen  and  they  weigh  just  two  pun'.  Stand  by  and  I'll  soon 
weigh  your  butter."  A  piece  of  the  fresh-churned  commodity  was 
put  into  one  scale  and  a  single  leg  of  the  tongs  in  the  other,  while 
the  second  leg  was  allowed  to  hang  out.  More  butter  was  added 
and  more  again  until  a  just  balance  was  obtained.  "There"  said 
the  good  woman  smiling  broadly,  as  the  scale  went  down  containing 
the  wholesome  ingredient,  "I've  given  ye  a  good  pun',"  and  the  man 
soon  marched  off  apparently,  I  presume,  very  well  pleased  with  his 
"pound"  of  fresh  farm-butter.  If  the  farmers  did  not  usually  wax 
rich,  as  it  is  hardly  to  be  expected  they  would  by  such  methods  of 
barter  and  sale,  they  at  anyrate  had  plenty  of  plain,  wholesome  food, 
and  were  comfortable  and  contented.  The  spread  of  commerce  and 
the  "luxury"  of  living  in  large  towns  has  made  the  farmer  think 
himself  very  badly  off.  But  what  he  loses  in  gaiety  and  excitement 
he  certainly  gains  in  health  and  contentment,  and  in  that  calm 
masculinity  of  mind  and  body  which  has  always  been  a  source  of 
strength  to  the  State  in  all  its  functions. 

Passing  Hole  House,  the  home  of  the  Emmott  family  (who 
have  some  fine  local  specimens  of  furniture  carved  in  old  Forest  oak), 
we  pursue  the  turnpike  with  the  high-up  little  hamlet  of  Drebley  a 
little  to  our  right.  Here  there  have  been  houses  and  cultivated  lands 
for  probably  a  thousand  years,  as  Domesday  Book  testifies.  It  is  a 
small  out-of-the-world  place  now,  but  it  has  a  fame  and  history  perhaps 
going  back  beyond  the  days  when  the  Saxon  Dringhel  was  its  lord 
and  king.  Perhaps  it  was  the  scene  of  some  long-forgotten  contest 
for  supremacy  between  Celt  and  Saxon,  or  Saxon  and  Dane,  as  its 
name,  spelled  in  1086  Drebelaie,  seems  to  imply.  Thus  it  may  mean 
the  ley  or  field  of  slaughter,  from  the  A.-S.  drcepe/i,  to  strike,  to  slay, 
p.  drcep,  the  A.-S.  labial  'b'  frequently  interchanging  with  'p.' 
Peaceful  enough  the  secluded  little  spot  looks  now,  with  its  few 
homesteads  garnered  on  the  hill-side  lapped  in  sunshine,  and  enjoying 
a  prospect  wide-reaching  over  classic  vale  and  purple  moorland. 
How  delightful  is  the  tramp  in  Spring-time  along  this  upland  road 
under  the  grand  sweep  of  Burnsall  Fell !  The  sweet  fragrance  of  the 
pines,  which  thickly  clothe  the  massive  breast  of  the  fell  like  an 
Alpine  forest,  acts  like  a  tonic  to  enervated  frames,  giving  elasticity 
to  the  step,  as  the  pure  breezes  play  about  you  from  unmeasured 
miles  of  the  fair  spreading  landscape.  How  noble  from  this  standpoint 
looks  the  i~>cky  ruins  of  old  Simon  Seat,  far  away  on  the  sky-line 
seeming  black  as  jet  against  the  flawless  blue!  Sometimes,  too,  while 
you  pace  the  rugged  fell-side,  a  perfect  rainbow  completely  arches 
the  fair  valley  with  multi-colored  radiance,  while  dancing  sunlight 


377 

gilds  the  silent  waters  of  old  Wharfe  to-day,  as  it  has  done  in  ages 
long  gone  by.  And  who  that  shall  come  after  us  shall  say  that  this  is 
not  the  best  of  God's  giving  for  body  and  heart  of  man?  Deep  in 
the  verdant  valley  speeds  the  sunlit  river  by  crag  and  scar,  and  in 
the  words  of  Mr.  Bland,  the  local  poet, — 

By  village  grev 

And  green  trimmed  \vuy, 
Hi-spangled  o'er  with  man}-  a  (lower, 

\Vhere  quaint  and  grand, 

Doth  proudly  stand, 
Bridge,  school  and  church  with  battled  tower, 

alluding  as  he  does  to  picturesque,  historic  Burnsall.  Unfortunately 
there  is  but  too  little  of  this  fine  moorland  road,  which  is  the  nearest 
approach  to  Burnsall  from  Barden,  and  passes  the  ancient  homestead 
at  Wood  End  (see  page  370)  and  the  new  and  splendidly-situated 
/'(•//  Jfouse  hotel  just  before  the  descent  is  commenced  to  the  village. 

But  the  usual  driving-route  from  Barden  is  through  Appletrewick 
and  Hartlington  to  Burnsall.  It  is  a  pleasant  route  under  the  "Kale," 
with  the  meadows  in  May  and  June  gleaming  with  the  silver  and 
gold  of  daisy  and  buttercup,  the  hedges  bright  and  fragrant  with 
thorn-bloom,  primroses,  stitch  wort,  vetches,  and  a  score  other  wildings. 
A  little  from  the  road  stands  Woodhouse,  formerly  a  village  and 
manor  belonging  to  Marton  Priory  (see  page  323)  and  for  centuries 
the  home  of  the  Blands.  Nothing  has  ever  been  said  of  Lord 
Nelson's  connections  with  this  place,  though  I  have  little  doubt  that 
through  the  family  of  Bland,  the  old  manor  house  here  will  be  proved 
to  be  one  of  the  ancestral  homes  of  England's  greatest  seaman. 
The  Cambridge  Blands  from  whom  the  famous  Admiral  descends  on 
the  mother's  side  came  from  Burnsall  parish.  George  Bland  of 
Burnsall  had  several  sons,  the  eldest  of  whom  was  Ambrose,  who 
was  a  sizar  at  Pembroke  College,  and  some  time  vicar  of  Waresley, 
Hunts.  In  his  will,  proved  in  1712,  he  mentions  Burnsall  and  his 
brother  Humphrey  Bland,  who  was  one  of  the  feoffees  of  Burnsall 
Grammar  School.  The  Rev.  Edmund  Nelson.  M.A.  vicar  of  Sporle, 
Norfolk,  who  was  born  in  1693,  married  Mary,  daughter  of  John 
Bland,  of  Cambridge,  gent.,  and  she  died  in  1789,  aged  91.  Their 
son,  the  Rev.  Edward  Nelson,  M.A.  rector  of  Hilborough  and  of 
Burnham  Thorpe,  Norfolk,  was  father  of  Horatio,  Viscount  Nelson, 
the  distinguished  Admiral,  who  as  all  the  world  knows,  fell  at  the 
battle  of  Trafalgar  in  1805.*  There  appear  to  have  been  Blands  at 
Woodhouse  before  the  Reformation  as  tenants  of  Marton  Priory,  and 

.SVv  "Collections  tor  a  History  of  the  Ancient  Family  of  Bland,  by  Nicholas 
Carlisle,  Coats  of  Arms,  Pedigrees,  &c.,"  1826.  Catalogued  by  Henry  Gray  for 
£10  IDS.  This  work,  however,  throws  no  light  on  the  Burnsall  family,  but  brings  in 
the  Blands  of  Westmorland,  Lancashire,  Cambridge,  Notts,  Norfolk,  Queen's  County 
and  Virginia,  America,  &c. 


I  find  a  family  of  Bland  paying  subsidy  in  the  parish  of  Bentham, 
25th  Edward  I  (1297).  Robert  Bland,  who  died  in  1819,  purchased 
the  old  house  and  barn  with  several  tenements  iVc.,  then  called  High 
Woodhouse,  from  one  Chris.  Malthouse,  of  Minskip,  Co.  York,  and 
re-sold  them  some  years  after  to  the  owner  of  Low  Woodhouse,  a 
Mr.  Michael  Gill,  of  Lead  Hall,  near  Tadcaster.  This  Robert  Bland 
married  Mary  Young  of  the  High  Hall,  Appletrewick  (see  page  369) 
and  had  three  sons  and  four  daughters.  The  eldest  son,  Robert, 
married  Mary  Atkinson,  of  Castley  (see  page  125)  and  left  a  family 
of  twelve  children,  of  whom  the  hale  and  affable  Mr.  John  Atkinson 
Bland,  now  in  his  yyth  year,  of  the  "  Manor  House,"  Burnsall,  is  the 
sole  survivor.  The  second  son  of  the  elder  Robert  Bland  was 
Stephen,  who  died  in  1862,  aged  78.  He  was  for  nearly  40  years 
curate  of  Burnsall,  and  was  49  years  head  master  of  the  Grammar 
School,  and  for  more  than  half  a  century  vicar  of  Kirkby  Malham. 
He  died  at  Burnsall,  and  is  buried  in  the  churchyard  there. 

The  old  house  now  standing  is  another  interesting  example  of 
those  sturdy  residences  of  the  seventeenth  century  yeomanry  for 
which  the  West  Riding  of  Yorkshire  is  particularly  famous.  The 
other  old  house  was  pulled  down  early  in  the  nineteenth  century,  but 
the  lintel  of  the  doorway  has  been  placed  over  the  entrance  to  a 
farm-building,  and  has  carved  upon  it  "A.S.  1637,"  the  initials  being 
those  of  one,  Anthony  Spurritt,  whose  burial  is  recorded  in  the 
Burnsall  register  for  December  i2th,  1661,  aged  seventy-nine.  The 
greater  part  of  the  old  house  provided  material  for  the  erection  of 
Burnsall  Wesleyan  Chapel  in  1840.  A  large  old  barn,  originally  a 
dwelling-house,  has  some  plaster-work  inside  bearing  the  initials  and 
date  I.W.  1635.  This  was  the  dwelling  of  the  man  Walters 
(?  Waters)  of  whom  Dr.  Whitaker  relates  a  tradition  of  his  having 
saved  the  life  of  a  young  lady  from  a  band  of  ruffians,  and  received 
the  property  in  reward  for  his  gallantry.  A  descendant  of  the  man, 
one  William  Waters,  who  died  in  the  West  Indies,  bequeathed,  I  am 
told,  the  rent  of  the  property  to  trustees  for  the  benefit  of  mission-work 
among  the  negroes.  Woodhouse  has  also  some  associations  with 
the  great  Civil  War,  for  Richard  Barrowe,  of  Woodhouse,  though  he 
never  took  up  arms,  was  like  Lord  Craven,  a  liberal  contributor  of 
money  in  support  of  the  forces  of  the  King.  He  was  a  pretty  large 
landowner  and  had  to  compound  with  the  Commonwealth  for  his 
estates. 

Another  house  of  ancient  foundation,  which  has  been  converted 
into  a  barn,  bears  on  its  door  lintel  the  following  playful  inscription: 
"1512,  Cabin  Thatched  +  House  Slated,  1755  +  Next  for  Cattle 
(1881)  was  Translated."  By  what  means  the  date  of  the  "thatched 
cabin"  has  been  obtained  I  have  not  ascertained,  but  it  seems  that 
the  Mr.  Gill,  above  alluded  to,  had  the  old  cottage  raised  a  story, 
with  two  plain  bedroom  windows  inserted,  leaving  the  original 


379 

mullions  of  the  lower  room  untouched.  He  also  put  on  a  slate  roof. 
In  the  alterations  made  in  rSSi,  a  small  cone-sheped  brick  oven  was 
removed  together  with  a  wide-arched  fire-place,  the  stones  of  which, 
all  clean  dressed,  were  afterwards  used  for  flooring  the  shippen.  It 
is  however,  very  doubtful  if  there  was  to  be  seen  a  single  chimney, 
outside  Bolton  Abbey  and  some  few  of  the  manor-houses,  in 
Wharfedale  before  the  days  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  Certainly  not  in 
cottages,  nor  were  the  mullions  glazed.  Old  Holinshed  writes 
complainingly,  about  1576,  of  the  innovations  of  glazed  windows  and 
chimney-places  in  the  country-houses  in  his  time.  Formerly,  he 
says,  there  was  "used  much  lattis,  and  that  made  of  wicker,  or  of 
line  riftes  of  oak  in  checkerwise,"  a  design  followed  in  the  diamond- 
pane  glazing  of  later  times.  Then  he  cries  down  the  good  old 
ingle-neuk  in  this  way.  "Now  have  we  many  chimneys  and  yet  our 
tenderlings  complain  of  rheums,  catarrhs,  and  poses;  then  we  had 
nothing  but  reredosses  and  yet  our  heads  did  never  ache,  for  as  the 
smoke  in  those  days  was  considered  a  sufficient  hardening  for  the 
timber  of  the  house,  so  it  was  reputed  a  far  better  medicine  to  keep 
the  good  man  and  his  family  from  the  quack." 

A  little  beyond  Woodhouse  the  road  runs  through  Hartlington, 
a  tiny  place  now,  but  whose  existence  as  an  independent  manor  of 
no  small  importance  may  be  traced  far  back  into  the  dark  ages  of 
history.  It  is  not  improbable  that  the  old  Crusaders  had  an  estate 
here  long  before  the  grants  to  the  monasteries,  as  I  find  when  the 
Order  of  Knights  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem  was  revived  by  Queen 
Mary  in  1557,  the  Prior  of  the  Order  was  commissioned  to  receive  a 
rent  of  6d.  and  service  issuing  of  a  tenement  "within  Burnesall,"  then 
or  late  in  possession  of  Roger  Metcalfe,  esquire.  This  Roger  Metcalfe 
was  of  the  Bear  Park,  Wensleydale  family,  and  died  before  1542. 
Whitaker  makes  no  mention  of  him,  but  in  1502  he  and  his  wife 
Elizabeth,  who  survived  him,  sold  lands  in  Hartlington  to  James, 
afterwards  Sir  James  Metcalfe,  of  Xappa,  and  in  respect  of  these  a 
fine  was  levied  between  the  parties  in  Easter  Term,  i~th  Henry  VII. 
In  1506,  as  appears  from  the  Recovery  Roll,  22iul  Henry  VII.,  Roger 
and  Elizabeth  Metcalfe  sold  to  the  same  James  Metcalfe  200  acres 
of  land  in  Hartlington  together  with  half  the  manor.  In  1515  the 
same  Roger  and  Elizabeth  Metcalfe  made  a  third  and  final  sale  to 
James  Metcalfe  of  lands  in  Hartlington,  and  a  recovery  entered  on 
the  De  Banco  Roll  for  Hilary  Term  7  Henry  VIII,  shews  that  James 
Metcalfe  (and  other  his  feoffees)  claimed  against  Roger  Metcalfe  the 
manor  of  Hawkswick  and  41  messuages,  2  mills,  2100  acres  of  land, 
2010  acres  of  meadow,  2010  acres  of  pasture,  220  acres  of  wood,  and 
3000  acres  of  moor  in  Hawkswick,  Hartlington,  Arncliffe,  Hanlith, 
Kirkby  in  Malhamdale,  Skipton,  Broughton  in  Craven,  Leathley, 
Appletrewick,  Burnsall,  Thorpe,  Angram  House,  Calgarth  House  and 
Gargrave,  and  half  of  a  third  part  of  the  manor  of  Hartlington. 


The  whole  manor  was  shortly  afterwards  in  possession  of  Sir  James 
Metcalfe,  who  died  in  1525. 

The  great  family  here  in  early  times  was  the  De  Hertlingtons, 
who  were  most  likely  descended  from  one  of  the  pre-Norman  owners, 
one  of  whom  named  Norman,  continued  to  hold  the  manor  after  the 
Conquest.  There  were  in  1066  two  manors,  one  of  three  carucates  or 
nearly  400  acres  of  land  in  annual  cultivation  and  the  other  of  one 
geld-carucate,  held  by  Almunt  and  afterwards  by  Dolfin,  the  same 
who  held  Appletrewick.  In  1279-80  an  inquisition  was  held  at  York 
touching  the  possessions  of  William  de  Hertlington,  then  lately 
deceased,  when  the  jurors  found  that  he  had  died  seized  of  one 
carucate  and  six  bovates  of  land  in  Hartlington  and  Appletrewick,  of 
the  tenure  of  Skipton  (now  in  the  King's  hands)  for  i6d.  to  be  paid 
yearly  to  the  King.  He  owed  homage  and  suit  of  court  at  Skipton 
from  three  weeks  to  three  weeks,  and  the  whole  land  was  worth  by 
the  year  yos.  He  also  held  in  Hartlington  three  carucates  of  Sir 
Robert  de  Neville  (Norman's  pre-Conquest  estate)  worth  annually  £6, 
for  i2S.  yearly  rent,  and  in  Hanlith  three  carucates  and  in  Rilston 
one  carucate,  together  worth  annually  ^9.  The  letting  value  of  the 
land  here  then  seems  to  have  been  about  4d.  an  acre,  which  the  lord 
held  by  military  tenure,  rendering  a  small  rent  and  service  (the  most 
honorable  of  all  obligations)  to  his  King  and  country.  His  Rilston 
estate  was  held  of  Sir  Roger  Tempest,  to  whom  it  may  be  noted  were 
due  ward  and  relief.  That  is  to  say  under  the  feudal  policy  the 
superior  lord  claimed  the  profits  of  the  estate  should  the  heir  be 
under  age  at  the  death  of  his  ancestor.  The  wardship  consisted  in 
having  the  custody  of  the  body  and  lands  of  such  heir,  the  law 
assuming  the  heir-male  unable  to  perform  knight-service  till  21,  but 
the  female  was  supposed  capable  at  the  age  of  14  to  marry,  and  then 
her  husband  might  perform  knight-service.  But  the  lord  had  no 
wardship  if  at  the  death  of  the  ancestor  the  heir-male  was  of  the  full 
age  of  21,  or  the  heir  female  of  14,  yet  if  she  was  under  14,  and  the 
lord  once  had  her  in  ward,  he  might  keep  her  so  till  16,  by  virtue  of 
the  Statute  of  Westminster,  A.D  1274,  the  two  additional  years  being 
given  by  the  legislature  for  no  other  reason  than  to  benefit  the  lord.* 

By  the  marriage  of  Elizabeth,  co-heiress  of  William  de 
Hertlington,  with  Thomas  Metcalfe  of  Nappa  Hall,  Wensleydale, 
who  was  Chancellor  of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster,  and  died  in  1504,  the 
Hartlington  estate  descended  as  above  related  to  the  Metcalfes.  It 
may  be  well  to  correct  some  few  inaccuracies  and  omissions  in  the 
able  and  elaborate  pedigree  of  this  family  in  Whitaker's  Craven  (3rd 
ed.  page  514).  The  eldest  son  of  the  above  Thomas  Metcalfe  was 
Ottiwell,  who  died  in  1500,  leaving  a  son  James,  who  lived  at 
Swinethwaite  in  Wensleydale,  and  whose  will  as  stated,  was  dated 

*  See  Blackstone's  Commentaries  (1783)  II.  67. 


1557-  But  there  is  no  proof  that  Ottiwell  had  any  other  children 
than  this  James,  who  left/rw/-  sons  (i)  Ottiwell.  of  Swinethwaite,  who 
died  in  1572,  (2)  George  of  Hood  Grange,  who  died  in  1571,  (3) 
Oswald,  married  Margaret  Lascelles,  living  1571,  (4)  Christopher,  of 
Tvlehou.se  Grange,  Old  Byland,  who  was  living  in  1584.  Ottiwell,  the 
eldest  son  of  James  had  a  family  of  four  children,  namely  George, 
who  died  in  1610.  Dorothy,  Cuthbert,  and  James,  who  were  living  in 
1580.  as  is  proved  by  the  privately-printed  Mctcalfe  Records, -A.  scarce 
and  valuable  work  on  this  notable  old  Yorkshire  family. 

The  manor  subsequently  became  divided,  one  moiety  descending 
to  the  Hebers  of  Marton,  now  owned  by  the  Wilsons  of  Eshton,  and 
the  other  moiety  passed  to  the  Daw-sons,  now  represented  by  Lieut. 
Col.  R.  H.  Dawson,  of  the  Royal  Artillery,  who  is  lineally  descended 
from  Sir  William  Craven,  of  Lenchwick,  and  his  wife  Elizabeth, 
daughter  of  Ferdinando,  Lord  Fairfax.  Sir  William  was  grandson  of 
Henry  Craven,  brother  to  the  famous  Alderman  of  Appletrewick, 
who  "filled  the  spacious  times  of  great  Elizabeth,  with  strains  that 
echo  still."  Col.  Dawson  a  few  years  ago  erected  at  Hartlington  a 
large  and  handsome  mansion  in  the  Elizabethan  style  of  architecture, 
which  occupies  an  elevated  site  commanding  a  wide  and  beautiful 
prospect.  A  few  years  ago  an  ancient  kiln  for  parching  corn  (the 
atha  of  the  Gaelic  Celts)  was  discovered  near  the  entrance  to  the 
mansion,  an  account  of  which  will  be  found  in  the  January  part  of 
the  Reliquary  and  Illustrated  Archaeologist  for  1898. 

The  old  manor  house  mentioned  in  the  Poll  Tax  of  1378,  has 
long  ago  disappeared,  and  its  site  only  can  be  recognized  in  a  field 
called  Hall  Garth  behind  the  present  Bridge  House,  where  are  traces 
of  an  ancient  piscary  or  fish-pond.  Close  by  the  ground  rises  and  is 
known  as  Chapel  Hill,  where  in  all  probability  was  a  private  oratory 
or  chapel  like  that  still  standing  at  Downholme,  near  Richmond.* 
The  Hertlingtons  had  their  own  chaplain  down  to  the  dissolution  of 
their  house,  in  the  i5th  century.  Sir  Richard  Clerke,  was  chaplain 
to  Henry  Hertlington  Esq.,  as  appears  by  his  will  dated  Sept.  1466, 
and  though  masses  were  ordered  to  be  offered  for  the  good  of  his 
soul  within  the  public  church  at  Burnsall,  there  is  little  doubt  a 
chapel  was  attached  to  the  old  manor-hall. 

The  Bridge  House  was  rebuilt  in  1882  by  the  late  Mr.  Richard 
Proctor,  of  Hetton.  The  previous  old  tenement  was  at  one  time  an  inn 
known  as  Spout  Vat,  standing  as  it  did  close  to  where  the  brawling 
Dibb  empties  itself  over  a  limestone  bed,  into  Wharfe,  and  where  a 
gate  was  hung  to  prevent  sheep  straying  from  the  unenclosed  moor. 
The  smithy  at  Hartlington  is  mentioned  as  far  back  as  the  days  of 
Chevy  Chase.  Many  an  interesting  story  of  the  past  life  of  this  little 
Wharfedale  hamlet  might  have  been  told  had  space  permitted.  The 

*  See  the  author's  Romantic  Rii-hiwindsliin;  pp.  JiH,  ^47,  &c. 


38z 

surrounding  country  is  now  all  enclosed,  Acts  for  that  purpose  having 
been  obtained  in  1804  for  Burnsall  and  ten  years  later  for 
Appletrewick.  Higher  up  the  Dibb  Beck  or  River  Dibb,  as  it  is 
called,  were  some  very  old  houses,  and  one  of  these  was  no  doubt 
the  abode  of  a  family  who  took  their  name  from  the  situation  beside 
this  pleasant  moorland  stream.  The  Dibbs  in  bygone  ages  worked 
the  lead  mines  on  Appletrewick  Moor,  and  in  the  Bolton  Abbey 
Compotus  for  1304  I  find  the  sum  of  3os.  paid  by  the  Prior  and 
Convent  to  Thomas  of  Dibb,  for  a  load  of  lead.  These  old  mines 
were  a  source  of  much  disputation  between  the  several  owners  of  the 
surrounding  lands,  and  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VII.  I  find  an  action 
entered  in  the  Duchy  Court  against  the  Prior  of  Bolton  concerning 
the  lead  mines  within  the  Forest  of  Knaresbro',  also  another 
concerning  the  metes  and  bounds  of  the  free  chase  of  Nidderdale 
belonging  to  the  Abbot  of  Fountains,  and  the  lordship  of 
Appletrewick  belonging  to  the  Prior  of  Bolton  &c.  Seventy  years 
ago  there  used  to  be  a  worsted  mill  at  Hartlington  run  by  Mr. 
Jeremiah  Ambler  of  Baildon.  Above  the  present  saw-mill  beside 
the  beck  we  get  out  on  to  Hartlington  Rakes,  which  are  old  sheep- 
walks,  so  called  from  the  Norse  rekan,  to  drive,  as  sheep. 

Now  let  us  retrace  our  steps  to  Appletrewick  and  take  the 
pleasant  road  by  Skyreholme  to  the  romantic  Trailers  Gill,  one  of 
the  outlying  places  of  this  picturesque  region  associated  with  the  old 
Celtic  traditions  of  trolls  or  fairies,  which  I  have  elsewhere  explained. 
Skyreholme  lies  on  a  boundary  of  such  antiquity  that  it  may 
evoke  comparison  with  the  scriptural  injunction — "  Disturb  not  thy 
neighbours'  landmark."  There  is  little  doubt  the  name  is  as  old  as 
the  Anglo-Saxon  occupation  and  means  the  holme,  or  low-lying 
pasture,  on  the  scyr,  a  shearing  or  division,  from  the  A.-S.  sciran,  to 
shear,  cut  off  or  divide,  whence  prest-scyr  priest's  share,  or  parish. 
Skyrholme  is  on  the  boundary  of  the  parish  of  Burnsall  and  has  a 
small  chapel-of-ease,  called  Christ  Church,  erected  in  1837  at  a  cost 
of  ^"220.  Beyond  this  and  the  paper-mill  here  (with  its  large  water- 
wheel,  which  is  stated  to  be  120  feet  in  circumference)  of  Mr.  Thomas 
Lumb  there  is  nothing  specially  to  interest  one  save  the  romantic 
aspects  of  the  situation. 

One  might  say  something  about  almost  every  old  house  in  the 
neighbourhood,  houses  which  up  to  the-  run-away  days  of  railways 
harboured  the  same  families  generation  after  generation,  even  century 
after  century.  The  old  dry-built  shielings  and  thatched  cottages  of 
monastic  times,  however,  gave  way  to  the  more  comfortable  and 
substantial  dwellings  of  the  iyth  century,  when  the  ancient  feudal 
tenures  were  finally  abolished  and  the  tenants  got  a  chance  to 
purchase  their  own  farms.  Land  about  here  which  had  been 
held  from  the  King  ///  capite  with  all  its  attendant  slaveries,  was  at 


383 

length  freed  by  tin-  grand  statute  of  12th  Charles  II,*  a  statute  which 
•  acquisition  to  the  civil  property  of  this  kingdom, 
rightly  observe^  Sir  \\'ni.  Blackstone,  than  Magim  Carta  itself.  It  set 
the  seal  of  emancipation  upon  every  species  of  holding  and  gave  the 
honest  farmer  a  chance  to  save  and  thrive.  It  gave  a  stimulus  to 
improved  farming  as  well  as  to  new  building  and  to  greater  social 
and  domestic  comforts.  The  ball  of  progress  had  undoubtedly  been 
set  rolling  by  King  James'  abolition  of  military  tenures,  and  the 
granting  of  leases  and  sales  by  the  land  speculators  on  the  dissolution 
of  monasteries,  which  did  so  much  to  disunite  the  people.  In  the 
reign  of  James  I  we  find  long  and  favorable  leases  granted  to  the 
tenants  in  Appletrewick,  and  that  within  the  next  fifty  years  man}'  of 
them  had  built  for  themselves  what  would  then  be  considered  little 
palaces  compared  with  the  old  turf  "  warrens  "  they  had  previously 
occupied. 

Locally  the  best  mansion  of  this  period  is  Percival  Hall,  which 
is  a  house  with  a  history.  As  the  initials  and  date  C.  P.  1671, 
appear  over  the  doorway,  it  was  very  probably  built  at  this  time  by 
a  gentleman  of  landed  means,  named  Christopher  Lowson,  of  whom 
I  possess  some  information.  He  wooed  and  wed  a  bonnie  dalesman's 
daughter,  Elizabeth  Demaine  eldest  daughter  of  George  Demaine,  of 
Skyreholme.  She  was  baptised  at  Burnsall,  Aug.  iyth  1634,  and 
married  at  the  same  place  on  Valentine's  Day  1660,  at  the  very  time 
when  General  Monk  had  declared  for  a  free  Parliament  and  the 
restoration  of  the  Stuarts.  She  died  in  1695,  a  widow,  her  husband 
having  died  on  April  6th  1693.  Their  eldest  daughter,  Catherine 
Lowson,  married  at  Burnsall  in  1678,  Robert,  only  surviving  son  of 
Michael  Inman,  of  Harefield,  Pateley  Bridge.  At  this  time 
Christopher  Lowson  gent.,  was  residing  at  Percival  Hall,  having 
removed  from  Gowthwaite,  in  Xidderdale,  and  he  appears  to  have 
owned  considerable  property.  His  son-in-law  Robert  Inman  was  a 
grandson  of  Robert  Inman,  of  North  Pasture  House,  an  old  monastic 
grange  at  Brimham,  in  Nidderdale,  who  was  a  great  sufferer  by 
the  Civil  War.  Three  of  his  sons  perished  while  serving  in  the 
Parliamentary  arm}-.  In  the  depositions  of  the  State  trials  in  the 
time  of  the  Commonwealth  it  is  recorded  that  his  house  at  Brimham 
was  plundered  by  Royalist  soldiers,  who  took  away  16  cows  and 
oxen,  and  he  himself  was  thrown  into  prison  at  Ripon  for  refusing  to 
take  the  oath  of  association  with  the  Cavaliers.  Robert  and 
Catherine  Inman  had  14  children,  3  sons  and  n  daughters,  all 
portioned  and  married,  but  only  one  son  Christopher,  survived  his 
father,  who  died  Dec.  26th  1721,  and  the  mother,  Catherine, 

*  Down  to  (his  time  the  tenant*  ot  the  neighbouring  manor  of  SiNden  owned 
themselves  bound  to  give  one  day's  mowing  in  the  Castle  field  at  Skipton  or  elsewhere 
on  the  lord's  demesnes. 


daughter  of  Chr.  Lowson,  died  June  5th,  1723.  Christopher  Inman 
was  twice  married,  leaving  an  only  son  Michael,  by  his  first  wife, 
who  was  bom  in  1716,  and  entered  the  shipping  trade  at  Hull.  His 
half-brother,  Charles  Inman,  was  in  a  similar  business  at  Lancaster, 
and  was  ancestor  of  the  well-known  firm  of  Transatlantic  steamship 
owners.  Michael  Inman  died  at  Doncaster  in  1784,  having  married 
Deborah,  daughter  of  Christopher  Bayles,  of  Laxton,  near  Howden, 
gent,  by  his  wife,  Elizabeth  Wastill,  granddaughter  of  Richard 
Peirse  Esq.,  of  Thimbleby.  His  wife  Mary,  daughter  of  Matthew 
Hutton  Esq.,  of  Marske,  in  Swaledale,  was  the  fifth  generation  in 
descent  from  the  "  King "  of  these  parts,  the  great  and  wealthy 
Henry  Clifford,  created  Earl  of  Cumberland  in  1525,  the  purchaser 
of  Bolton  Abbey  and  chief  lord  of  the  fee.  Thus  by  the  match  with 
this  Skyreholme  yeoman's  daughter,  we  are  able  to  establish  a 
connection  through  nine  generations  to  the  noble  house  of  Clifford, 
while  the  ancestry  of  Deborah  Bayles,  who  married  Michael  Inman, 
great-grandson  of  Christopher  Lowson  and  his  wife  Elizabeth 
Demaine,  of  Percival  Hall,  is  set  out  in  Burke's  Royal  Descents  and 
Pedigrees  of  Founders  Kin.  Some  of  the  Inmans  lived  at  Gateup  on 
Appletrewick  Moor,  but  no  connection  has  yet  been  established 
between  them  and  the  Nidderdale  family. 

From  Percival  Hall  we  may  soon  reach  the  romantic  gorge  of 
Trailers  Gill,  above  alluded  to,  with  its  traditions  of  the  spectre- 
hound  (barguest),  about  which  the  reader  with  a  taste  for  legend  will 
find  a  long  rhyming  ballad  in  Hone's  Table  Book.  The  ravine,  in  a 
survey  of  the  Clifford  estates,  in  the  reign  of  Edward  II.,  is  called 
"  Gordale  in  Appletrewick,"  most  likely  from  the  Danish  geir,  a 
triangular  piece  of  land  terminating  in  a  chasm,  and  still  used  in 
Denmark  in  that  sense.  The  ravine  itself  is  about  half-a-mile  in 
length  and  is  cut  through  an  abrupt  face  of  mountain  limestone, 
broken  by  fissures  from  which  specimens  of  fluor  spar  (the  "  Blue 
John"  of  the  Peak  district  mines),  are  obtained.  Being  traversed  by 
a  good  flow  of  water  and  being  only  a  few  yards  wide,  the  passage  of 
the  gorge  is  not  to  be  recommended  except  in  dry  weather.  The 
writer  will  not  forget  many  years  ago  pursuing  the  boulder-strewn 
course  of  this  miniature  Khyber  shortly  after  a  flood,  and  with  great 
difficulty  succeeding  in  reaching  the  high  ground  at  the  Moor  Cock 
near  Stump  Cross  Caverns.  In  the  upper  part  of  the  limestone  above 
Skyreholme  Dam  there  is  a  "  swallow  "  called  Hell  Hole,  which  opens 
out  into  a  large  oblong  chamber,  but  it  can  only  be  descended  by 
means  of  a  rope  and  reliable  lamp.  The  first  known  descent  of  the 
chasm  was  made  at  the  end  of  June,  1896,  by  members  of  the 
Yorkshire  Ramblers'  Club,  including  Messrs.  S.  W.  Cuttriss,  T.  S. 
Booth,  J.  W.  Swithenbank,  G.  T.  Lowe,  L.  Moore,  and  C.  Scriven. 
The  perpendicular  descent  from  the  surface  to  the  floor  of  the  cave 
was  found  to  be  no  feet.  There  was  a  shallow  pool  of  water  at  the 


tiottom,  and  tlu-  main  chamber  is  in  two  parts,  made  liy  an  over- 
hanging projection  of  rock.  But  the  place  appears  to  he  of  no  -real 
extent,  nor  are  the  ramifications  of  the  cave  little  more  than  mere 
fissui 

A  few  yards  to  the  south  of  this  strangely-named  pot-hole  (see 
HKIMIK.N)  i>  the  entrance  to  an  old  lead  working.  Traces  of  ice 
action  are  to  be  seen  in  the  vicinity  of  the  gill,  with  numerous 
travelled  boulders  lying  about,  while  all  around  there  grows  a 
profusion  of  that  beautiful  mountain  gem  the  Grass  of  Parnassus. 
Some  of  the  field-walls  higher  up  are  built  of  limestone  conglomerate, 
and  the  rock  ///  situ  may  be  seen  in  the  beck  whilst  walking  in  the 
direction  of  the  Greenhow  Hill  road  near  Fancarl  Crag.  The  pretty- 
vernal  sandwort  is  one  of  the  floral  gems  of  these  high  moors  and 
wherever  refuse  from  the  lead  mines  is  scattered,  there  the  tiny  rays 
of  this  solitude-loving  flowret  are  always  most  plentiful. 


CHAPTER     XXXII. 


BURNSALT. 

In  tin-  laiut  D|  tin-  Viking--  Meaning- of  the  name  Burnsall    -Dale-names  in  the  Sag-as  — 
l'os|-\orman    history — The    glebe      Local    monastic    possessions — Bond    tenure 
(  )nality  and   weight  of  cattle  in  ancient   times     First  evidences  of  the  occupation 
of  Hurnsall      Revival  of  Christianity    -Karly  sculptured  crosses      Hurnsall  never  in 
the     parish     of    I.inton     Ancient     holy-wells      Description     of    rros.se*      Historical 
inaccuracies     The    medietics    of    the    church     The    ancient     chapels    at     Rilston, 
Common,    and    Bradley      Rectors    of    Hurnsall     The    church    described      Kleventh 
eentiirv   font     Churchwardens'  accounts     Old  customs      Local   pastimes     The   old 
(irammar  School      Local  improvements      Pleasant  scenery. 
^ 

HEN  we  get  to  Burnsall  we  are  in  the  land  of  the 
Viking,  and  most  of  the  old  names  and  traditions  are 
of  that  cult.  Dr.  Whitaker's  contention,  so  often 
repeated,  that  Burnsall  is  the  hall  on  the  burn  is  a 
fallacy  based  upon  imperfect  knowledge  of  this 
subject  in  his  day.  Moreover  it  is  questionable  whether  the  Wharfe 
at  Burnsall  which  he  holds  enters  into  the  composition  of  the  name, 
is  entitled  to  be  described  as  a  burn ;  assuredly  not  as  that  word  is 
understood  now  in  Northumberland  and  Durham.  In  Domesday 
Burnsall  is  written  Brinshale  and  Brincshale,  which  in  Norman- 
French  comes  very  near  the  Norse  bruii,  whence  Briinolvi,  "  the 
wolf-browed,"  or  Brunolfr,  which  is  the  oldest  form  of  the  common 
name  Brynjolfr.*  After  some  Viking  warrior  then  Burnsall  was 
named  and  doubtless  in  the  Qth  century  when  the  sons  of  the 
redoubtable  Ragnar  Lodbrok,  Hubbe,  and  Halfdan,  (who  were  slain 
about  A.D.  878),  first  invaded  this  part  of  England,  and  in  the  names 
Hubberholme,  higher  up  Wharfedale,  and  Hubbercove  at  Skirethorns, 
abide  some  indication  of  this  conquest.! 

In  the  famous  saga  of  King  Sigurd,  the  Dragon-Slayer,  who 
ranked  "  high  over  all  the  kings  of  the  north  as  the  sun  ranks 
above  the  stars,"  we  read  of  his  heroic  achievements  until  secretly 
murdered  by  his  brothers-in-law,  Gunnar  (from  whom  the  place 
Gunnerside)  and  Hagen  (from  whom  comes  Hagenlith  now  Hanlith), 
and  of  his  espousing  the  brave  and  beautiful  Brynhild,  whose  noble 
daughter  Craka  is  the  heroine  of  a  very  pretty  story.  Is  our 

An  instance  of  a  i^th  century  survival  of  the  name  Brim  in  Wharfedale  will  be 
found  on  page  44. 

t  Rag-nar  I.odbrok  had  a  son  Bjorn,  which  is  simply  Norse  or  Danish  for  "nobly 
born,"  or  a  prince,  equivalent  to  the  A.-S.  beorn,  a  chief,  nobleman  or  ruler.  Hence 
in  the  (V/r/c.v  KxtiiiU'nsis  Thorpe  renders  "  Burn-sel "  as  a  princely  hall." 


388 

ancient  village  Cracoe  and  Crakehall  (in  Domesday  Crachele)  near 
Bedale  named  in  her  honor  ?  Many  of  these  old  saga-names  are 
found  perpetuated  in  places  in  the  Yorkshire  dales,  and  a  complete 
catalogue  of  the  numerous  personalities  of  these  Viking  stories  would, 
while  determining  the  origin  of  many  of  our  dale-places,  enable  us 
•to  declare  where  the  Norsemen  gathered  and  told  their  sagas  and 
sung  their  war-songs  over  the  foaming  mead  !  Tales  of  marvel  and 
daring  many  of  them  are  too.  The  heroic  Ragnar  Lodbrok,  above 
mentioned,  is  said  to  have  worn  "  breeks "  impervious  to  dragons' 
teeth,  thereby  winning  his  incomparable  wife  Thora  (there  is  a 
Thor's  or  Thora's  well  at  Burnsall)  out  of  the  house  where  she  was 
guarded  by  the  savage  dragon,  Lindworn,  who  lay  watchful  upon  a 
pile  of  gold.  The  large  debased  dragons  on  the  Burnsall  font,  cut 
more  than  a  century  after  Ragnar's  invasion,  bear  I  must  say  no 
allusion  to  this  old  legend.  On  this  I  will  speak  presently.  Ragnar's 
second  wife  was  the  beautiful  princess  Craka  already  mentioned, 
who  like  the  shepherd-lord  of  Barden  Tower,  had  been  (so  the 
tradition  runs)  brought  up  in  disguise  as  a  peasant  by  the  bond- 
couple  Akd  and  Grima,  the  latter  well-known  Norse  appellative 
occurring  in  our  Upper  Wharfedale  Grimwith. 

But  coming  now  to  actual  record  we  find  that  Burnsall  in  1066 
consisted  of  two  manors.  One  of  these  embraced  two  carucates  and 
two  bovates  in  Burnsall  and  its  dependent  corn-vill,  Drebley,  held 
by  one  Dringhel,  which  were  harried  and  wasted  at  the  Norman 
Conquest  (see  page  376)  and  subsequently  given  to  the  powerful 
Osbern  de  Arches.  The  other  included  three  and  a  half  carucates 
in  Burnsall  and  its  appanage  Thorpe-sub-Montem,  owned  by  one 
Hardulf  who  was  permitted  to  retain  them  of  the  king.  He  was 
perhaps  the  same  Hardulf  who  entered  York,  Oct.  3rd  1065,  and 
avenged  the  murder  of  Gospatric,  Gamel,  and  Ulf.  Gospatric  was 
uncle  to  Gospatric,  lord  of  Bingley  before  1066,  and  in  this  parish 
are  Morton  and  Riddlesden,  also  part  of  the  possessions  of  Hardulf, 
probably  the  same.  His  Burnsall  estate,  with  Drebley,  subsequently 
passed  to  the  Romilles  and  was  held  by  the  family  of  Bulmer*  and 
Fitzhugh,  as  part  of  the  Skipton  fee ;  while  the  lands  of  Osbern 
descended  to  the  Hebdens,  and  in  1315  William  de  Hebden  obtained 
a  grant  of  free  warren  in  Hebden,  Coniston,  and  Burnsall.  At  this 
date  the  manors  of  Burnsall  were  held  by  William  de  Hebden, 
and  Peter  Gilliot  of  Broughton-in-Craven,  from  whose  descendants 
Broughton  was  acquired  by  the  Tempests. f  The  last  of  the  Hebdens 
in  the  i5th  century  left  two  daughters  co-heiresses,  one  of  whom 
married  a  Tempest  of  Bracewell,  and  the  other  wed  Sir  Thomas 
Dymoke,  of  Scrivelby,  Co.  Lincoln.  The  Burnsall  estates  were  thus 

'  Sec  Fines  4th  John  (1202)  Surtecs  Svc.  Pub.  Vol.  94  p.  19. 
I  \i'''  i'fillcittinea  Tupog.  et.  Gen.  1't.  XXIII  p.  307  &c. 


3*9 

divided,  one  moiety  going  In  tin-  Tempests,  and  the  other  to  the 
Dymoke  family.*  Such  a  division  of  the  property  involved  a  partition 
of  the  benefice  of  the  church,  and  from  an  early  period  until  the 
order  of  1876  consolidated  the  rectory,  it  was  in  medieties  and  there 
were  two  rectors  presented  by  different  patrons.  The  parish  was 
then  divided  and  each  rector  (the  present  rector  of  Burnsall  and 
the  rector  of  Rylston)  has  now  a  moiety  of  the  tithe  and  a  glebe 
as  before  when  there  were  two  rectors  of  the  whole  parish.  But 
Hartlington,  within  this  parish,  pays  one-third  of  its  tithes  to  the 
rector  of  Linton.  Most  of  the  glebe  attached  to  the  rectory  of 
Burnsall  is  at  the  southern  extremity  of  the  township  of  Appletrewick 
and  was  allotted  in  lieu  of  tithes  of  which  that  township  is  clear. 
The  \\hole  glebe  amounts  to  429  acres. 

The  monasteries  of  Fountains  and  Marton-in-Cleveland  owned 
considerable  properties  in  Burnsall,  while  the  whole  of  Appletrewick 
with  Woodhouse  was  in  possession  of  Bolton,  Marton,  and  Fountains 
Abbeys.  Bertram  de  Buhner,  the  founder  of  Marton  Priory  about 
A.D.  1150,  gave  30  acres  of  land  in  Burnsall  and  Thorpe,  with 
pasture  in  the  same  district  for  300  sheep  and  30  cows,  which  Henry 
de  Xevil,  his  grandfather,  confirmed.  To  Fountains  Abbey  Walter, 
son  of  Uchtred  de  Ilketon,  gave  lands  here  about  1237,  also  Andreas, 
son  of  Richard,  clerk,  of  Sundene  (a  locality  which  cannot  now  be 
identified)  gave  a  culture  of  land  called  Lounthwayt  (a  place  not  now 
known),  with  a  toft  and  croft,  which  Peter  Gilliot  confirmed.  Also 
Ernald,  son  of  Amfrid  de  Thorpe  gave  Robert  the  son  of  Richard, 
his  native,  with  his  cattle  and  one  toft  and  a  messuage  here,  with 
common  right.  This  was  the  composition  made  about  A.D.  1302 
between  the  parson  of  the  church  of  Burnsall  and  the  monks  of 
Fountains,  whereby  the  latter  agreed  to  pay  to  the  former  one  mark 
of  silver  per  annum  in  recompense  for  the  tithes  of  three  carucates 
of  land  in  Kilburn  and  Bordley  on  Malham  Moor.f  The  said 
"native"  of  Thorp  was  evidently  a  bond-tenant  no  doubt  living  at 
Thorp  in  the  old  Hall,  and  though  he  with  his  family  and  cattle 
could  be  sold  at  the  will  of  the  lord,  such  bond-tenants  were  as  a 
rule  not  so  badly  off  as  one  might  suppose.  They  occupied  their 
holdings  at  a  low  rent,  rendering  various  services  to  the  lord,  but 
with  the  decay  of  feudalism  towards  the  end  of  the  i4th  century 
many  of  these  services  lapsed  by  desuetude  and  such  bond-tenants 
became  even  more  comfortably  circumstanced  than  the  freemen 
paying  higher  rents.  Often  such  bond-tenants  were  the  principal 
landholders  in  the  manor. 

I    omitted    to   mention    in    the   notice   of    Sir   John   de    Eston's 

*  Burnsall  appear-  to  ha\<-  been  held  by  Richard  Tempest,  of  Boiling-  in  the  parish 
of  Bradford,  who  died  in  1581,  but  how  or  when  it  came  to  be  subsequent!}'  disposed  ot 
I  have  not  ascertained, 

t  See  Burton's  Mon.  Ebor.  p.  153;  also  Yorksh.  Ret;  Sft:  XVII,  70. 


39° 

possession  of  the  manor  of  Appletrewick  that  in  1275  ne  gave 
common  pasture  for  all  kinds  of  cattle  on  the  common  of  Appletrewick 
to  Fountains  Abbey  throughout  the  year.  The  land  was  then  of 
course  unenclosed  and  this  promiscuous  feeding  of  "all  kinds  of 
cattle"  out  of  the  same  "dish"  was  by  no  means  calculated  to 
promote  weight  or  quality  of  the  meat.  Indeed  small  heed  was 
given  at  that  time  to  the  breeding  of  cattle,  there  being  little  winter 
food  and  no  artificial  grasses.  Cows  and  oxen  were  not  a  third  of 
their  present  weight,  while  it  may  surprise  the  modern  farmer  to 
know  that  the  fleece  of  a  sheep  yielded  on  an  average  not  more  than 
a  single  pound  of  wool.*  Sir  John  likewise  granted  to  the  monks 
free  passage  for  their  cattle,  horses,  goods,  and  carriages  through 
his  lands  from  Malham  Moor  and  other  parts  of  Craven,  and  his 
brother,  James,  added  a  grant  of  pasturage  towards  Nidderdale,  on 
the  north  of  the  way  leading  from  Cravenkeld  to  Nussaheved  (where 
is  this?)  and  so  to  Gathorp  (Gateup)  beck  to  the  ancient  site  of  the 
Monks'  Bridge. 

But  let  me  now  go  back  some  centuries  before  these  events, 
when  Christianity  was  beginning  to  revive  in  the  district.  To 
comprehend  the  manner  and  time  of  the  extension  of  Roman 
Catholicism  in  Wharfedale  from  Otley  and  Ilkley  to  Burnsall  after 
the  suppression  of  the  Scotic  Church  in  664,  we  must  turn  to  the 
collection  of  early  sculptured  crosses  now  preserved  within  the 
Church  at  Burnsall.  There  are  no  fewer  than  thirteen  fragments, 
but  not  one  shews  the  careful  treatment  and  magnificent  detail  of  the 
Otley  or  Ilkley  crosses;  they  are  apparently  of  much  later  date  and 
this  is  significant.  It  is  however  almost  certain  there  was  something 
more  than  a  preaching-cross  at  Burnsall,  and  that  the  parish  had 
been  formed  long  before  the  erection  of  the  nth  century  church,  the 
existence  of  which  is  proved  by  the  remarkable  coeval  font  still  in  use. 
It  is  also  clear  from  the  laws  of  Canute  there  were  many  churches, 
some  of  which  in  all  probability  erected  in  his  reign  and  still  standing, 
are  not  recorded  in  the  Domesday  inquest.  The  learned  historian  of 
Craven,  Dr.  Whitaker  assumes  by  tradition  that  Burnsall  was  originally 
a  member  of  Linton  parish,  but  there  is  nothing  at  Linton  in  stone 
or  record  that  can  lay  claim  to  the  antiquity  of  the  parish  of  Burnsall. 
Indeed  as  I  hope  to  make  evident  when  dealing  with  Linton,  the 
"city"  of  Grassington  was  the  capital  of  that  district  before  the 
Norman  Conquest,  and  only  became  subservient  to  Linton  when  that 
parish  was  formed  on  the  Norman  settlement.  The  probability  is  that 
Grassington  like  Appletrewick  was  a  flourishing  centre  of  an  Anglo- 
Celtic  population  long  before  either  Linton  or  Burnsall  came  into 
note. 

There   are   two    important   holy-wells  at   Burnsall,  one  situated 

*  See  Rogers'  Hlstotv  of  P> Ices  &c.,  Vol.  i  p.  52  &c. 


391 

within  the  glebe  north  of  the  church  and  rectory,  and  the  other  a 
short  distance  beyond.  Both  may  have  been  originally  dedicated  to 
pagan  deities,  and  upon  the  settlement  of  Christianity  within  the 
parish,  that  within  the  glebe  changed  its  ascription  to  St.  Margaret  of 
Antioch.*  The  other,  which  is  close  beside  the  river  (perhaps  the 
original  site  of  baptism),  was  dedicated  for  all  time  to  St.  Helena,  the 
mother  of  Constantine,  whose  popularity  in  Wharfedale  I  have 
elsewhere  referred  to.  But  none  of  the  crosses  are  as  old  as  St. 
Wilfrid,  to  whom  the  church  is  dedicated,  and  it  is  more  than 
probable  that  the  teaching  of  the  faith  did  not  reach  this  sparsely 


EARLY    SCULPTURED   CROSSES   AT    BURNSALL. 


populated  district  until  the  Danish  usurpation  of  Xorthumbria.  Nor 
was  it  firmly  established  until  the  time  of  the  institution  of  Canute  in 
1017,  when  the  idol  and  brazen  image  were  again,  and  as  it  proved 

The  fame  of  this  virgin  martyr  surpassed  nearly  every  oilier  in  England  in  the 
i;,th  century,  though  very  little  is  known  about  her  life.  Mr.  Haring-Gould  says  sin- 
was  the  daughter  of  a  heathen  priest,  one  Kdess-ius  of  Antioch,  Pisidia  (not  Antioch  in 
Syria)  and  was  brought  up  by  a  Christian  nurse.  In  Art  St.  Margaret  is  represented 
with  a  cross  in  her  hand  rising  out  of  a  dragon,  s(,m,-times  with  a  dove  upon  her. 


392 

for  ever  afterwards  ordered  to  be  cast  aside.  To  this  period  I  refer 
the  Burnsall  font. 

The  principal  fragment  among  the  broken  crosses  is  part  of  a 
shaft  about  five  feet  high,  sculptured  on  all  four  sides.  The  front 
face  bears  what  is  sometimes  called  a  vertebrae  pattern,  though  Mr. 
Calverley  sees  in  this  device  the  great  World  Ash  Yggdrasil,  of  the 
old  Norse  Edda  the  "tree  of  the  universe,  of  time  and  of  life."*  A 
design  of  this  character  appears  on  the  well-known  Gosforth  Cross  in 
Cumberland,  of  the  ninth  or  tenth  century,  and  also  on  the  standing 
cross  at  Muncaster,  which  Mr.  Collingwood  thinks  shews  evidence  of 
Irish-Viking  influence.  There  is  also  at  Burnsall  a  very  badly- 
weathered  "hog-back"  memorial  of  some  warrior  Viking  of  the  same 
period.  It  had  formed  the  lintel  of  the  south  doorway  prior  to  the 
restoration  of  1859.  It  appears  on  the  accompanying  engraving, 
together  with  other  of  the  fragments,  amongst  them  being  a  cross- 
head,  twenty-four  inches  wide,  which  bears  a  cross  potent  in  the 
centre,  and  is  very  similar  in  design  to  the  so-called  Paulinus  cross  in 
Godley  Lane,  Burnley.  Another  fragment  of  a  cross-head  fifteen 
inches  wide,  has  a  circular  raised  knob  or  boss  in  the  centre,  three 
inches  in  diameter,  which  may  signify  the  sun,  though  Mr. 
Collingwood  thinks  that  these  bosses  which  are  common  on  Christian 
cross-heads,  may  be  only  the  natural  development  of  the  nails  in  the 
original  wooden  construction. 

Turning  now  to  record-times,  there  appear  many  inaccuracies 
among  the  published  "authorities"  on  this  parish.  Lawton  cannot 
be  right  in  assuming  that  the  disastrous  effects  of  the  Scottish  invasion 
of  Craven  after  Bannockburn  did  not  reach  Burnsall,  as  the  Taxatio 
Ecclesiastica  (ca.  1291)  records  ^13  6s.  8d.  as  the  value  of  each 
mediety,  while  in  the  New  Taxation  (1318)  it  is  entered  : 

Kcrl.  de  Hrynsall  divisa  est.      P's  Rici  et  P's  Johis  ^20 

that  is  Richard's  part  and  John's  part,  each  ^10.  In  the  King's 
Books  the  annual  value  of  the  medieties  is  stated  to  be  each  ^18, 
and  the  yearly  tenth  each  ^i  i6s.  od.  In  volume  eighteen  of  the 
Parliamentary  Survey  it  is  recorded  there  are  .two  medieties  worth 
together  about  ^160  per  annum,  "yet  some  of  the  parish  claim 
exemption  from  tithes  of  the  Cistercian  order.  We  find  that  there 
are  three  chapels  in  the  said  parish,  but  no  certain  maintenance 
belonged  to  any  of  them.  The  chapels  are  at  Rilston,  Coniston,  and 
Bradley,  which  in  regard  they  are  far  distant  from  any  church  and 
from  one  another  (the  nearest  not  being  within  three  miles,  and  the 
way  being  bad)  and  the  congregation  belonging  to  each  chapel  being 
sufficient  for  a  parochial  assembly,  we  conceive  it  fit  that  the  said 
three  chapels  be  all  made  parish  churches,  and  endowed  with  a 
competency  for  a  minister's  maintenance."  The  allusion  to  "Bradley" 

*  See  Calverley  and  Colling-wood's  Early  Sculptured  Classes,  pp.  139,  167,  238,  &c. 


mu>t  surely  refer  to  the  old  Domesday  village  of  Bordley  on  Malham 
Moor,  though  no  one  knows  that  a  church  or  chapel-of-ease  was  ever 
continued  after  the  Reformation  as  was  the  case  at  Rilston  and 
Coniston.* 

In  the  Xotitia  Parochial  is  (No.  253)  there  is  also  this  record  : 

There  are  two  medicties,  each  worth  about  £70  per  annum  or  upwards.  Part  of 
the  Rectory  is  impropriate  ;is  the  town  of  Rilston,  the  tithe  corn  whereof  is  i< 
now  in  kind  by  the  truant*  of  the  Hon.  Henry  Boyle  [Lord  Lieutenant  of  the  \\V-t 
Riding- in  171.4;  died  17.24]  and  the  same  has  so  continued  since  the  time  of  O.  Elixaheth 
in  the  hands  <,|  the  Earl  of  Cumberland,  whose  grant  they  show  for  the  enjoyment  of 
that  tithe,  they  paying  yearly  to  the  Rectory  £,1,  6s.  8d.  ;  but  we  can  give  no  account 
how  that  part  of  the  Rectory  was  dismembered,  it  being  an  entire  lordship,  not  given 
lo  any  religion--  house,  and  formerly  in  the  hands  of  the  Nortons.  who  as  tradition 
informs  us,  at  the  time  of  the  Northern  Rebellion  in  O.  Kli/abeth's  days,  were  sei/cd  o! 
tlie  tithes  by  way  of  lease,  and  it  is  also  supposed  had  then  been  for  some  time,  by  the 
connivance  of  a  son  of  that  family,  which  after  his  rebellion,  were  with  several  other 
lordships  conferred  upon  (iconic,  Marl  of  Cumberland,  for  services  then  done. 

Among  the  early  rectors  of  Burnsall  (omitted  by  Whitaker)  it  is 
interesting  to  note,  was  John  de  Kirkby  (1270-2),  author  of  the 
famous  and  invaluable  record  known  as  Kirkby s  Inquest.  It  is  a 
record  indispensable  to  the  full  understanding  of  parochial  history, 
throwing  as  it  does  a  valuable  side-light  on  most  of  the  manorial 
holdings  in  our  county  at  a  highly  interesting  epoch.  Kirkby  was 
made  Bishop  of  Ely  in  1286,  where  he  died  in  1290.  In  the  third 
edition  of  Whitaker's  Craven  there  is  a  list  of  the  rectors  of  both 
medieties  down  to  their  amalgamation  in  1876,  when  the  Rev.  Chas. 
H.  Carlisle  became  rector  of  the  joint  incumbency.  The  present 
rector,  the  Rev.  W.  J.  Stavert,  M.A.  was  instituted  in  1888,  and  it  is 
a  pleasure  to  record  not  only  his  interest  in  the  work  of  a  large 
country  parish  whose  population  is  widely  scattered,  but  the 
commendable  care  he  takes  of  the  venerable  mother  church  and  its 
every  belonging.  The  interior  is  a  model  of  neatness  and  fitness  as 
a  temple  worthy  the  praise  of  God,  while  every  fragment  of  stone 
which  bears  witness  to  the  high  antiquity  of  the  sacred  edifice  has 
been  judiciously  removed  within  the  precincts  of  the  church,  an 
example  that  might  with  advantage  be  followed  by  other  incumbents 
in  our  historic  Yorkshire  dales,  so  famed  for  their  evidences  of  early 
Christianity.  Mr.  Stavert  is  also  an  indefatigable  record  searcher, 
especially  in  departments  of  geneaology,  while  much  of  his  leisure 
in  recent  years  has  been  usefully  employed  in  transcribing  and 
publishing  the  important  registers  of  the  parish  of  Skipton,  as  well  as 
of  his  own  parish  of  Burnsall,  and  he  has,  I  believe,  been  instrumental 
in  inducing  other  incumbents  of  parishes  to  take  up  this  valuable 

*  Although  the  chapel  at  "Bradley"  is  stated  to  be  in  Burnsall  parish,  it  is  quite 
possible  in  the  Commissioners'  Survey  confusion  may  have  arisen  in  the  monks  of 
Fountains'  possessions  at  Bordley  and  Bradley.  They  had  an  estate  at  Bradley,  three 
miles  north-east  of  Huddersfield,  where  was  an  ancient  sanctuary  belong-inp  to  the 
Benedictine  Nunnery  of  Kirklees  near  Dewsbury. 


394 

kind  of  work.  By  his  interest  I  am  enabled  to  present  the  following 
revised  list  of  rectors  of  the  first  mediety;  the  list  given  in  Whitaker's 
Craven  being  apparently  correct  from  the  first  recorded  institution  in 
1294  to  the  year  1570.  The  name  of  John  de  Kirkby  in  1270-2 
must  however  be  added. 


DATE  or  INST. 

RECTORS  OF  THE  FIRST  MEDIETY. 

PATRON'S. 

HOW  VACATED. 

29  July,  1596 

Joli.  Tophan  (bur.  30  Jan.  1618-19) 

Joh.     Lambert     of 

By  death 

Calton  aim. 

6  .Mar.,  1618-19 

Thos.   Tophan  (bur.  at  Linton  10 

Thos.  Topham,  sen. 

Jan.  1651) 

of  Cracoo 

165, 

Chr.  Lancaster  (bur.  30  Dec.  1694) 

By  resig. 

.685 

Rob.  Tophan  (buried  9  Apl.  1690)* 

By  death 

1690 

Pet.  Alcock  (bur.  10  Oct.  1733) 

Joh.  Alcock,  gent. 

By  death 

6  Dec.,  1733 

Joh.  Alcock  M.A.  (res.  7  Jun.  1753) 

Ellen     Alcock,     of 

By  resig. 

Burnsall,  widow 

1  8  June,  1753 

Joli.   Alcock   B.A.   (bur.  25   Nov. 

By  death 

1810) 

28  Mar.,  1810 

Richd.  Withnell  (d.  1826) 

By  death 

3  Mar.,  1832 

Joh.  Baines  Graham 

Rev.  Joh.   Graham 

By  resig. 

of  York 

1  6  Feb.,  1838 

Gregory  Rhodes 

do. 

By  resig. 

14  Feb.,  1839 

Wm.  Bury  M.A.  (d.  10  Feb.  1875 

do. 

By  death 

Bur.  at  Coniston) 

27  Nov.,  1875 

Capel  Wolseley  B.A. 

Susan     and     Maria 

By  cess. 

Graham 

8  May,  1876 

Hen.  Theo.  Cavell 

do. 

By  resig. 

The  list  of  rectors  of  the  other  mediety  commencing  with  the  year 
1230  appears  to  be  correct,  down  to  the  institution  of  the  Rev.  Chas. 
H.  Carlisle  in  July,  1875,  who  was  the  first  rector  of  the  conjoined 
incumbency,  as  stated  above. 

The  church,  as  I  have  said,  bears  evidence  of  an  existence  from 
the  ninth  or  tenth  century,  although  the  earliest  portions  of  the 
present  fabric  are  of  no  higher  antiquity  than  the  thirteenth  century. 
Several  of  the  Anglo-Danish  crosses  above  described  were  built  into 
the  walls  of  the  present  church,  and  were  carefully  taken  out  during 
the  restoration  in  1859.  A  Norman  corbel  has  been  built  in  a 
curious-looking  recess  in  the  south  aisle,  necessitated  by  an  alteration 
in  the  exterior  wall,  while  the  bases  of  two  of  the  pillars  at  the  east 
end  appear  to  have  been  abaci  of  Norman  pillars.  One  of  these, 
used  as  a  foundation  of  the  octagonal  column  on  the  north  side,  is  a 
square  plinth  bearing  a  chevron  ornament,  and  a  rude  bit  of 
sculpture,  which  may  be  a  hunting  scene,  similar  to  one  I  have  seen 
carved  on  a  Norman  abacus  in  the  parish  church  at  Richmond.  On 
the  south  side  there  is  a  similar  square  plinth,  at  each  of  the  four 
angles  of  which  appears  a  small  grotesque  face.  A  square  plinth 
with  a  leaf  ornament  placed  at  the  angles  may  not  uncommonly  be 
found  in  ecclesiastical  buildings  of  Early  English  times. 

*  Probably  an  assistant  minister  only. 


THIRTEENTH    CENTURY   SCULPTURE,    BURNSALL   CHURCH. 


395 

At  Murnsall  tin-  ea>t  end  of  the  church  is  undoubtedly  tin- 
oldest  constructive  portion  of  the  building  now  remaining,  and  the 
buttresses  here  are  of  very  rude  finish,  no  doubt  the  work  of  local 
masons.  At  both  the  north  and  south  angles  they  are  double, 
consisting  of  five  stages,  and  terminating  at  only  half  the  height  of 
the  aisles.  There  are  two  short  buttresses  of  similar  character 
beneath  the  choir  window,  and  on  the  north  side  of  these  is  a  longer 
buttress  having  a  very  flat  appearance,  consisting  of  three  shallow 
set  offs.  the  base  projection  being  only  eighteen  inches,  and  the 
mid-projection  only  twelve  inches.  It  i>,  like  the  others,  not  carried 
to  the  roof  of  the  church.  The  plinth  is  deep,  and  of  massive 
masonry,  differing  in  this  respect  from  the  coarse  mason-work 
beneath  the  adjoining  east  window  of  the  south  aisle,  which  is 
evidently  the  oldest  complete  portion  of  the  church  now  existing.  It 
is  a  very  rustic  example  of  late  Early  English  (1230-50),  consisting 
of  two  lancet  lights  pierced  at  their  angles  ,  the  soffit  and  jambs 
being  perfectly  plain,  with  a  splay  inside  of  twenty-lour  inches.  The 
window  is  fitted  with  modern  stained  glass,  a  memorial  to  the  wife 
of  the  Rev.  A.  C.  Bland,  who  died  in  1858. 

The  church  has  been  almost  entirely  rebuilt  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII.,*  but  the  tower  has  been  begun  somewhat  earlier.  It 
is  a  very  massive  embattled  structure  with  good  plinth  mouldings, 
which  are  not  continued  round  the  church.  Inside  it  opens  upon 
lofty  pointed  arches  into  the  north  and  south  aisles,  and  at  the  base 
of  the  south  pier  is  a  Z  mason-mark,  like  one  on  the  tower  entrance 
at  Bolton  Abbey  (see  page  319).  The  columns  of  the  nave  arches 
are  octagonal,  supported  on  irregular  bases.  When  the  church  was 
restored  by  Mr.  John  Varley,  in  1859,  the  plain  and  much-decayed 
sixteenth  century  chancel-arch  was  taken  down  and  the  present  one, 
supported  on  clustered  shafts  with  ornamental  capitals,  was  erected 
in  its  place.  At  that  time  the  church  had  a  west  gallery,  where  a 
barrel-organ  stood,  and  the  ringing  chamber  was  behind.  These 
objectionable  features  were  done  away  with  at  the  restoration 
referred  to.  The  whole  structure,  I  understand,  was  in  a  very  bad 
state  of  decay,  both  inside  and  out,  and  Mr.  Varley,  resident 
architect,  undertook  the  difficult  work  of  restoration,  acting  himself 
as  clerk  of  works,  and  carried  it  out  in  a  very  thorough  and 
conscientious  manner,  and  at  a  remarkably  low  cost.  The  accom- 
panying sketch,  reproduced  from  the  scarce  original  in  possession  of 
the  late  Rev.  A.  C.  Bland,  shews  the  humble  appearance  which  the 
church  presented  sixty  years  ago.  Prefacing  this  chapter  is  the 

*  The  family  of  Nussey  has  long  been  resident  in  the  parish  of  Burnsall.  One  of 
its  members,  William  Nussie,  early  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  was  living  in  the  parish 
of  Bradford,  and  by  his  will,  dated  6th  July,  1521,  he  leaves  35.  4d.  to  Burnsall  Church, 
in  all  probability  towards  the  work  of  rebuilding  then  going  on.  See  Bradford 
Antiqtiaiy,  1894,  p.  219. 


396 

present  view  of  the  church,  from  an  excellent   photograph    by   Mr. 
Fred  Turner,  a  nephew  of  the  present  schoolmaster  at  Burnsall. 

During  the  alterations  an  ancient  stone  altar  bearing  the  usual 
five  incised  crosses,  was  found,  but  it  was  unfortunately  broken  up 
for  wall-stones  in  the  architect's  absence.  The  one  at  Linton  is 
happily  preserved,  having  had  a  similar  narrow  escape.  A  sixteenth 
century  Biblical  text  was  also  discovered  printed  on  the  wall  of  the 
south  aisle.  But  perhaps  the  most  notable  discovery  made  was  in 
the  floor  of  the  north  aisle,  where  was  found  a  remarkably  fine 
thirteenth  century  "Adoration  of  the  Magi,"  beautifully  sculptured  in 
alabaster,  and  when  found  it  shewed  much  of  the  color  and  gilding 
with  which  it  had  been  originally  decorated  (see  illustration  facing 


BURNSALL   CHURCH    IN    1839. 


page  395).  The  same  subject  appears  sculptured  in  stone  in  low 
relief  over  the  west  doorway  of  Higham  Ferrers  Church  (St.  Mary's), 
Northamptonshire,  but  the  example  at  Burnsall  is  much  superior  and 
larger,  and  is  probably  unique. 

The  oak  choir-screen,  erected  in  1891,  bears  four  small  shields 
of  arms,  and  the  north  screen,  separating  the  choir  from  the  vestry, 
is  a  memorial  to  the  wife  of  Mr.  John  Varley,  the  architect  who 
restored  the  church.  The  screen  on  the  south  side,  originally  the 
gift  of  Sir  VVm.  Craven,  consists  of  Jacobean  lower  panels,  with  new 
work  above.  The  east  window  has  three  plain  lights.  The  roof  of 
the  choir  is  open-timbered  and  affixed  to  the  ends  of  the  hammer- 


ANCIENT    FONT    IN    BURNSALL   CHURCH. 


397 

beams  are  ten  small  modern  shields  of  arms,  (the  work  of  the  present 
rector),  the  four  on  the  north  side  are  (i)  Tempest,  lord  of  the  manor 
of  Burnsall  (2)  Yorke,  lord  of  the  manor  of  Appletrewick  (3)  Wilson, 
lord  of  the  manor  of  Hartlington  (4)  Dawson,  lord  of  the  manor  of 
Hartlington  (5)  Hartlington.  On  the  south  side  they  are  (i)  Craven 
of  Appletrewick  (2)  Sir  Wm.  Craven,  Kt.  (3)  William  Geo.  Robert, 
Earl  of  Craven  (4)  Evelyn,  Countess  of  Craven  (5)  Stavert.  There 
are  memorial  tablets  and  stained  lights  in  the  church  to  the  families 
of  Heye,  Carr,  Batty,  Waddilove,  Bland,  Stockdale,  Ellison,  Tennant 
and  Hebden.  The  parish  accounts  shew  that  45.  was  spent  in 
flagging  the  church  in  1704,  also  in  1708  is.  6d.,  1752,  53.  4d.,  and 
in  1758  for  laying  64  yards  of  flags  in  the  church,  2 is.  4d. 

A  word  now  upon  the  font.  I  have  mentioned  the  well  of  St. 
Helena  beside  the  river,  north  of  the  church,  and  it  is  not  improbable 
that  this  spring  was  originally  employed  in  administering  the  rite  of 
baptism,  Consecration  of  water  for  baptism  is  first  mentioned  by 
Tertullian  (De  Bapt.  c.iv.),  and  streams,  wells,  and  even  rivers  were 
first  employed  for  that  purpose.  It  was  not  until  the  fourth  century 
that  Constantine  the  Great  introduced  baptisteries,  which  were  then 
furnished  with  altars,  (see  ILKLEY,  page  191)  and  a  very  exact  account 
of  one  presented  by  this  Emperor  to  the  church  of  the  Lateran  is 
given  in  the  Life  of  St.  Sylvester  in  the  Bibl.  Pap.  of  the  so-called 
Anastasius.  Over  these  early  fonts  doves  of  silver  and  gold  were 
sometimes  suspended  in  allusion  to  the  circumstance  of  Christ's 
baptism,  and  such  symbolical  figures  are  sometimes  found  carved 
upon  the  stone  receptacles  of  later  date.  It  is  possible  the  crude 
bird-like  forms  carved  upon  the  Burnsall  font  may  have  such  a 
significance,  though  some  look  very  much  like  fishes.  The  animals 
shewn  on  the  accompanying  engraving  of  the  font,  are  not  like  the 
winged  Cetus,  or  sea-monster,  symbolizing  the  waters  of  baptism,  an 
example  of  which  appears  on  the  Dearham  font  in  Cumberland,  but 
seem  to  me  to  be  merely  a  debased  form  of  the  Norse  Leviathan, 
duplicated  as  we  often  find  both  in  pagan  and  Christian  art.  Their 
tails  instead  of  presenting  the  usual  worm-twist  of  the  earlier  art- 
makers,  are  entwined  somewhat  in  the  form  of  a  Greek  Omega.  The 
whole  may  signify  the  conquest  over  sin  at  baptism,  and  the  work 
may  confidently  be  ascribed  to  the  eleventh  century,  for  inasmuch  as 
had  befallen  the  Constitution  so  it  happened  in  Art,  there  had  been 
anarchy  and  decline  ever  since  the  death  of  the  good  King  Alfred. 
The  square,  chamfered  support,  which  rests  upon  a  modern  octagonal 
base,  bears  a  diaper  carving  similar  to  the  early  Norman  diaper  work 
on  the  nave  columns  in  Selby  Abbey  and  Durham  Cathedral.  At 
the  top  of  the  font  is  a  cable  moulding.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that 
this  valuable  relic  of  ancient  Christian  art  was  for  a  long  time  previous 
to  its  restoration  in  1859  used  as  a  whitewash-pot  for  "embellishing" 
the  interior  of  the  church! 


The  churchwardens'  accounts  of  the  parish  of  Burnsall,  before 
alluded  to,  commenced  with  the  year  1704,  and  contain  many  items 
of  more  than  local  interest,  such  as  the  bonfire  celebrations  on  the 
5th  November,  which  seem  to  have  been  a  general  charge  on  the 
parish.  In  1709  there  is  58.  entered  as  being  spent  by  ringers  "on 
King  Charles  martrdum."  Lord  Craven,  whose  Burnsall  ancestry  I 
have  before  explained,  contributed  no  less  a  sum  than  ,£50,000  in 
furtherance  of  the  unfortunate  King's  cause  in  the  Civil  War.  In 
1709  35.  is  entered  as  "spent  on  the  Quenes  procklemeshon,"  and 
is.  8d.  as  "spent  by  the  rengers  on  that  day;"  also  2S.  "spent  on 
polm  Sunday  by  sidesmen."  The  sum  of  43.  is  entered  in  1712  as 
"spent  on  St.  Thomas'  Day,  also  53.  on  the  same  occasion  in  1713. 

It  seems  from  an  entry  in  1713  that  the  parishioners  not  only 
provided  the  dog-whipper,  whose  business  it  was  to  keep  the  dogs 
quiet  during  divine  service,  but  they  also  kept  him  in  shoes  and 
clothing.  A  new  whip  in  1726  cost  4d.  The  church-clock  is 
mentioned  in  1704  as  requiring  oiling.  When  it  was  erected  there  is 
nothing  to  shew.  In  1745  William  Prior  the  celebrated  Nessfield 
clock-maker,  provided  a  dial  at  a  cost  of  5s.  In  1743  "Mr.  Austin" 
was  paid  195.  for  binding  the  church  bible.  Would  he  be  a  Leeds 
Austin  of  the  same  family  as  our  poet  laureate?  In  1745  Major 
Harper  received  is.  for  "fixin  the  dial  post."  New  church-gates 
were  provided  in  1746,  for  which  James  Swail  received  £i  us.  6d. 
There  is  a  handsome  lych-gate  there  now. 

A  good  old  custom  for  which  Burnsall  has  long  been  celebrated 
is  mentioned  in  1706  when  25.  6d.  was  given  to  ringers  on  May  Day. 
A  new  May  Pole  was  erected  April  igth,  1891,  the  previous  one 
having  stood  since  1874,  while  one  which  had  been  erected  on  May 
ist,  1834,  was  blown  down  during  a  very  wild  night  in  January, 
1839,  and  from  that  time  until  1862,  Burnsall  was  without  its 
commemorative  shaft.  The  dissolution  of  monasteries  made  almost 
a  clean  sweep  of  Roman  Catholicism  in  Upper  Whafedale,  although 
a  few  families  continued  staunch  to  the  old  faith  long  after  the 
Reformation.*  The  Puritanical  spirit  of  the  Commonwealth  however 
suppressed  all  the  former  fun  of  May  Day,  and  the  May  Poles  were 
taken  down,  and  were  not  replaced  until  the  restoration  of  Charles  II. 
in  1660,  when  the  huge  May  Pole  in  the  Strand,  London,  was  re-erected 
and  the  old  sports  were  revived.  In  the  year  above  mentioned,  1706, 
the  celebrations  took  place  on  Old  May  Day  (now  May  i2th)  and  as 
evidence  of  the  tenacity  of  ancient  creeds  and  customs  Old  May  Day 
is  still  the  day  fixed  in  many  parts  of  the  country  for  turning  the 
cattle  out  all  night  in  the  fields.  The  parish  feasts  are,  as  a  rule 
fixed  by  the  amended  dates  of  the  calendar  according  to  the  day  of 

*  In  1678  Anthony  Bland,  constable  of  Burnsall,  had  15.*.  allowed  him  for  conveying 
George  Long,  a  Popish  recussant,  to  Wetherby  Sessions. 


399 

the  festival  of  the  patron  saint  of  the  church.  In  1706  for  example 
St.  Wilfrid's  I), iv  (the  festival  of  his  nativity)  was  August  ist.  In 
September  1752,  eleven  days  were  omitted  from  the  calendar,  thus 
St.  Wilfrid's  Day  was  then  reckoned  to  fall  on  August  i2th.  In 
1800,  which  was  not  a  Leap  Year,  the  interval  became  one  of  twelve 
days,  and  in  1900  and  up  to  2100  the  difference  will  be  thirteen  days. 
Burnsall  Feast  consequently  should  now  fall  on  the  first  Sunday  after 
August  1 3th,  though  I  believe  the  12th  is  still  adopted  as  the  day  by 
which  it  is  regulated.  Its  popularity  has  greatly  declined,  though  at 
one  time  the  feast-week  afforded  rare  opportunity  for  conviviality  and 
merry-making.  It  probably  originated  before  the  Conquest.  The 
festival  of  the  good  Bishop  Wilfrid  (who  died  in  711)  is  of  course 
a  very  ancient  one,  and  in  the  time  of  King  Ina  (who  died  in  725) 
it  was  enacted  that  if  any  freeman  work  on  a  feast-day  he  must  forfeit 
to  the  Bishop  eight  shillings,  while  even  a  serf  or  maid-servant  must 
pay  four  shillings,  so  rigorous  were  the  penalties  for  neglecting  such 
honor  to  the  church  and  its  prime  ministers. 

Sports  and  pastimes  of  various  kinds  were  renewed  in  the  days 
of  the  "Merry  Monarch"  in  this  Royalist  village  with  all  the  old 
vigor  of  the  ante-Cromwell  era,  and  even  a  century  ago  one  might 
have  seen  various  games  of  ball  &c..  played  on  the  Sabbath,  in 
accordance  with  the  license  in  King  James'  Book  of  Sports.  A 
characteristic  story  is  told  of  the  Rev.  John  Alcock,  who  was  rector 
of  Burnsall,  and  died  there  in  1810.  One  Sunday  while  on  the  way 
to  service  in  the  church  he  met  a  number  of  boys  in  the  heat  of  a 
game  of  football,  and  he  called  out  and  remonstrated  with  them, 
reminding  them  that  it  was  the  Sabbath.  But  the  lads  took  no  heed 
and  the  ball  in  a  moment  alighted  in  front  of  the  worthy  rector. 
"The  better  the  day,  the  better  the  deed"  must  suddenly  have  entered 
the  good  man's  thoughts,  for  he  at  once  raised  his  foot  and  giving 
the  ball  a  hearty  kick  sent  it  flying  away  over  the  heads  of  the 
admiring  youths!  "There,"  he  said,  "that's  the  way  to  kick,"  while 
the  lads  cheered  and  cried,  "Well  done,  parson!"  as  the  latter  moved 
towards  the  church  with  an  air  of  "something  accomplished,  some- 
thing done."  Other  stories  of  bygone  rectors  might  be  added,  but 
the  following  must  suffice.  When  Peter  Riley  was  sexton  of 
Burnsall,  he  and  the  parson  were,  one  wild  winter  clay,  the  only 
persons  present  at  the  Sunday  morning*  service.  But  the  good  rector 
went  through  the  service  notwithstanding,  and  when  he  commenced 
with  the  usual  words,  "  Dearly  beloved  brethren,"  the  listening 
sexton  suddenly  started  up  and  called  out:  "Xeea,  neea .  ye  maun't 
seay  'Deearly  beloved  brethren,1  ye  maun  say,  'Ueearly  beloved 
Pete'!" 

Among  other  old  local  events  and  customs  I  might  mention 
there  was  formerly  prevailing  here  a  singularly  pleasing  funeral 
custom.  When  any  young  female  died  in  the  parish  the  village 


4oo 

maidens  formed  themselves  in  procession  and  preceded  the  body  on 
its  way  for  interment  at  the  church.  They  bore  with  them  a  wreath, 
often,  when  in  season,  made  up  of  wild  flowers,  to  which  was  attached 
a  slip  of  paper  inscribed  with  the  name  and  age  of  the  deceased. 
This  was  hung  on  the  old  oak  screen  in  the  church  and  remained 
sometimes  for  many  years  until  it  crumbled  away.  Sometimes  the 
memorial  took  the  form  of  paper  gloves,  hearts,  or  anchors,  made  in 
homely  fashion  and  suspended  in  the  same  manner  to  the  old  screen, 
where  aged  people  now  living  tell  me  they  remember  seeing  them  in 
their  young  days.  The  same  custom  prevailed  in  other  Wharfedale 
churches. 

Those  indeed  were  days  of  rural  isolation,  when  the  same 
thoughts  and  habits  moved  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  people  as 
they  had  done  in  the  old  ancestral  times.  They  were  days  full  of 
calm  and  joyous  simplicity,  when  the  stress  of  life,  which  weighs  so 
heavily  in  these  days  of  commercial  heat  and  hurry,  was  hardly  felt. 
Though  there  be  I  know,  men  in  Wharfedale  in  this  year  of  grace, 
1900,  who  have  never  seen  the  iron-horse  nor  heard  a  railway-whistle, 
yet  in  truth  they  are  few  and  far  between,  for  the  iron  road  year  by 
year  shoots  deeper  into  the  hills,  and  who  shall  say  that  in  our  time 
it  will  not  reach  even  the  mountain  tops!*  No  place  left  for  quiet 
of  mind  or  calm  of  soul!  Railways,  post  and  telegraphs,  printing, 
electricity  and  the  like  have  driven  Simplicity  from  her  accustomed 
haunts  and  the  quiet  of  Nature  is  invaded  in  her  remotest  parts.  A 
story  apropos  of  these  innovations  came  to  my  knowledge  not  very 
long  ago,  which  I  repeat  if  only  to  shew  how  even  the  most  distant 
farm  cannot  escape  the  postman's  knock  or  the  far-reaching  advertising 
sheet.  A  farmer  in  the  upper  dale  who  was  very  much  troubled 
with  the  caterpillar-pest,  sent  half-a-crown  to  an  agent  in  the  Midlands 
for  what  was  described  as  a  "lightning  caterpillar-killer,"  and  received 
in  return  two  perfectly  plain  blocks  of  wood,  upon  which  was  written 
these  directions:  "Take  this  block,  which  is  No.  i  in  the  right 
hand,  then  place  the  caterpillar  on  No.  2,  and  press  them  together. 
Remove  the  caterpillar,  and  proceed  as  before."  Whether  the 
recipient  sickened  and  died  from  the  deception,  so  "characteristic  of 
the  age,"  my  informant  did  not  relate.  Perhaps  he  has  never  been 
heard  of  since,  except  on  this  page!  Oliver  Heywood  tells  a  rather 
singular  story  in  his  "Event  Book"  under  the  year  1664.  "At 
Burnsall  in  Craven,"  he  writes,  "was  a  greavous  feaver  amongst  very 
many.  A  man  and  his  wife  were  both  sick :  the  woman  rose  out  of 
her  bed  and  came  to  her  husband's  bed-side  in  her  smock,  and  said 
'it's  now  ten  of  the  clock  and  time  for  me  to  be  gone.'  She  then 
went  out  and  was  never  found  nor  heard  of  since,  which  is  almost 

*  A  project,  for  carrying  a  railway  to  summit  of  Ingleborough  has  lately  been 
started.  Well  may  we  exclaim  with  Wordsworth  "What  spot  in  Nature  in  secure  from 
rash  assault?" 


401 

three  weeks  ago."  Such  village  tales,  amusing  or  sedate,  might  be 
told  by  the  score,  but  it  is  time  now  I  passed  to  more  improving 
subjects. 

The  fine  old  Grammar  School  at  Burnsall  was  founded  in  1603 
by  Sir  \Vm.  Craven,  before  mentioned,  and  the  original  building,  of 
which  I  give  a  view,  is  still  standing,  an  excellent  example  of  the 
domestic  style  of  that  age.  The  projecting  porch  is  noteworthy  with 
its  flat-headed  doorway  having  ornamented  spandrils,  the  last  link 
connecting  it  with  the  Perpendicular  style.  The  beautiful  old  leaded 
window-panes  and  gable-finials  are  also  characteristic.  The  school 
maintains  the  good  traditions  of  the  founder  and  is  now  attended  by 


THE    GRAMMAR    SCHOOL,    BURNSALL. 


about  fifty  boys  and  girls.  There  is  now  a  convenient  play-ground 
attached,  formed  from  a  piece  of  land  given  by  the  late  Mr.  Win. 
Chadwick,  who  with  the  Stockdales  constituted  the  principal  local 
landowners.  I  may  here  record  the  interesting  names  of  the  original 
trustees  of  the  school:  John  Topham,  clerk,  Wm.  Brogden,  clerk, 
Anthony  Craven,  of  Darley,  [how  related  to  the  famous  Dr.  Wm. 
Craven,  of  Gowthwaite  Hall?]*  Robt.  Craven,  of  Appletrewick, 

"    W  thr>  authr>r'«  \iddfrdalr. 


4O2 

Anthony  Craven  of  the  same,  Thomas  Craven,  son  of  the  last  named 
Anthony,  Peter  Benson,  of  Knaresburgh,  George  Heles,  of  Burnsall, 
Nicholas  Rayner,  Thomas  Preston,  the  elder,  Robert  Yonge,  John 
Waters,  and  John  Yonge.  Sir  William  also  left  money  for  the  repair 
of  the  church  and  schoolhouse,  likewise  for  the  building  of  four 
bridges  in  Burnsall  parish,  including  the  restoration  of  Burnsall 
Bridge  and  the  repair  of  the  highways  between  Appletrevvick  and 
Burnsall.  The  present  substantial  bridge  of  five  arches  was  erected 
in  1884,  replacing  the  one  built  in  1827  which  was  overthrown  by 
the  great  flood  on  Jan.  29th,  1883. 

Forty  or  fifty  years  ago  there  were  not  a  few  objectionable 
features  about  the  village,  as  one  might  have  seen  at  other  places  in 
the  dales  at  this  time.  Provision  was  made  for  ash-pit  refuse  which 
used  formerly  to  lie  about  the  houses,  and  the  sanitary  conditions 
of  the  place  generally  were  much  improved.  Ivy-beck  bridge  was 
also  built,  the  churchyard  was  enlarged  and  the  old  stocks  set  up, 
improvements  were  effected  in  the  Grammar  School,  and  the  whole 
place  was  made  to  assume  a  better  and  tidier  look.  The  village  is 
now  one  of  the  sweetest  and  most  attractive  in  the  dales.  It  is 
amply  provided  with  house  and  inn  accommodation.  The  old 
Red  Lion  in  the  village,  (so  called  from  the  arms  of  the  Hartlingtons) 
and  the  Fell  House  hotel  on  the  hill-side  are  both  capital  houses  of 
entertainment,  being  well  patronised  in  the  season.  The  village  has 
now  a  post  and  telegraph  office  and  letters  and  post-parcels  are 
received  through  Skipton,  by  which  place  they  should  be  addressed. 

The  many  miles  of  river-side*  and  moorland  walks  are  most 
diversified  and  picturesque.  Everywhere  there  are  scenes  of  delightful 
rusticity,  while  to  the  naturalist  and  geologist  the  district  affords  a 
rich  and  varied  field.  Loup  Scar,  a  little  beyond  the  church  is  a 
charming  spot,  where  the  cliffs  of  limestone  overhang  the  surging 
Wharfe,  here  forming  a  belt  of  eddying  foam  as  it  tumbles  over  the 
broken  ledges  in  the  river.  On  the  way  to  Hebden  is  Thorskill,  a 
well  of  ancient  repute  which  (unless  this  be  a  shortening  of  the  old 
saga-name,  Thora's  Keld)  still  retains  its  pagan  dedication,  a  very 
rare  circumstance  in  Wharfedale. 


*  A  gx>ld  coin  (a  half  noble)  of  the  reign  of  Edward  III.,  in  perfect  condition,  was 
found  on  the  banks  of  the  Wharfe  near  Burnsall  In  Nov.  1871. 


CHAPTER    XXXIII. 


THK  ANCIENT  TOWNSHIP  OK  THORPK,  OK  THORPK-SUI;-M»NTKM. 

A  "Sleepy  Hollow,"  the  "birth-place  <>t  the  world"  A  pre-Christian  burial-vault 
and  old  bear  den — The  shoemakers  of  Thorpe — The  Baily  Hill,  an  old  British 
encampment — Evidences  of  coral-iecf-  Klboltun  Cave-  Discovery  of  human  and 
other  remains -Antiquity  of  the  clcpo.-it-  Bones  of  Arctic  animal-  Subsequent 
history — The  hall  and  manor-hou.s< — Former  aspect-. 

jHE  retired  little  village  of  Thorpe  lies  a  short  two  miles 
to  the  west  of  Burnsall,  and  is  parcel  of  that  ancient 
parish,  to  which  it  has  doubtless  belonged  by  tie>  of 
family  inheritance  even  from  the  first  Celtic  invasion, 
— !  long  before  the  Christian  era.  The  discovered  remains 
hereafter  mentioned  prove  this,  while  the  ancient  demarcation  name 
black,  before  explained,  occurs  near  Langerton  Cottage,  close  to  the 
western  boundary  of  the  township,  again  confirming  the  regard  I 
have  shewn  of  each  succeeding  race  of  conquerors  to  adhere  to  the 
original  landmarks.  Here  at  this  quiet  home-spot  among  the  Craven 
dales,  peeping  into  the  "  Sleepy  Hollow  "  in  which  the  cosy  hamlet 
lies,  you  seem  indeed  to  stand  at  the  very  birth-place  of  the  world. 
For  here  are  evidences  that  carry  you  back  to  the  obscure  era  of  the 
first  appearance  of  human  life  in  this  part  of  our  globe;  and  they 
are  assuredly  evidences  of  a  highly  interesting  character.  Presently  I 
shall  have  something  to  say  of  these  pre-Christian  burial-vaults  in 
the  hill  beyond  the  village,  and  of  the  old  bear-den,  which  has 
yielded  bones  of  the  huge  grizzly  monster  now  extinct  in  the  Old 
World,  as  well  as  of  those  reindeer-herds  which  accompanied  the 
nomadic  tribes  that  once  lived  among  the  lichen-covered  hills  of 
Craven. 

"  Old,"  indeed,  is  not  the  term  to  apply  to  a  place  of  such 
antiquity  as  Thorpe,  and  I  sometimes  wonder  whether  its  hyegone 
race  of  shoemakers — for  nearly  every  house  had  its  cobbler — was 
descended  from  those  original  followers  of  St.  Crispin  who  came 
from  Rome  in  the  fourth  century,  and,  dare  we  say,  made  shoes  for 
the  veteran  Roman  lead-miners  of  the  surrounding  hills?  Were  the\ 
the  free-born  ancestors  of  that  Adam  of  the  war-like  Richard's 
Poll  Tax  of  some  ten  centuries  later,  who  is  described  as  "  Adam  vat 
Godmade,  shoemaker,''  then  living  at  Edesley  (Ardsley),  in  West 
Yorkshire,  and  who  may  have  been,  for  aught  I  know  to  the  contrary, 
primogenitor  of  the  old  race  of  cobblers  of  Thorpe? 

Thorpe,  perhaps,  at  one  time  formed  a  kind  of  suburb  to  that 
most  ancient  British  "city"  now  called  Grassington.  It  would  seem, 


404 

however,  in  remote  times  always  to  have  constituted  a  self-dependent 
tribe,  and  never  to  have  been  subject  to  Grassington  or  Linton.  The 
rector  of  Burnsall  has  kindly  allowed  me  to  inspect  the  old  tithe-map 
of  his  parish,  and  amongst  the  surviving  field-names  in  the  township 
of  Thorpe  I  found  the  significant  ones  of  High  and  Low  Baily.  a 
name  which  I  have  elsewhere  shewn  to  be  associated  with  the  first 
Celtic  invaders  of  our  Yorkshire  dales.*  On  my  next  visit  to  Thorpe, 
a  few  weeks  afterwards,  I  was  gratified  to  find  in  the  positions 
indicated  upon  the  map  abundant  evidences  of  this  ancient  Celtic 
settlement  still  existing,  although  much  obliterated  by  enclosure  of 
the  land  in  recent  times.  Anciently  this  "  baily  hill "  was  one 
undivided  settlement,  protected  with  ramparts  of  earth  and  stone, 
and  commanding  a  look-out  north,  east,  and  west,  of  great  strategical 
importance.  I  observed  foundations  of  ancient  walls  five  or  six  feet 
thick,  and  some  traces  of  ancient  housesteads,  of  which  again  no 
cognizance  has  hitherto  been  taken.  In  the  High  Baily  are 
appearances  of  a  double  ascending  rampart,  with  excavated 
enclosures,  while  in  the  field  below,  now  called  Reins,  are  other 
remains  of  thick-walled  foundations  and  enclosures.  Nothing  short 
of  a  complete  excavation  of  the  site  would  reveal  the  full  extent  and 
significance  of  this  old  Brigantian  settlement. 

To  the  west  of  Thorpe  there  are  a  series  of  round  and  shapely 
hills  or  knolls  extending  in  a  north-easterly  and  south-westerly 
direction,  known  successively  as  Elbolton,  Stebden,  Butterhaw,  and 
Garden.  These  little  hills  are  of  great  geological  interest,  having 
originated  by  the  peculiar  extension  from  the  south  of  the  Pendleside 
limestone,  and  formed  largely  by  coral  organisms,  it  is  supposed  on 
a  sinking  sea-bottom.  Mr.  R.  H.  Tiddeman,  of  H.M.  Geol.  Survey, 
observes  that  they  do  not  obey  the  rules  of  dip  and  strike  which  are 
usually  found  to  obtain  in  ordinary  parallel-bedded  deposits.  When 
they  are  perfect  they  are  seen  to  consist  of  a  flat  top,  the  dip  of 
which  easily  agrees  with  that  of  the  other  rocks  of  the  country 
around  in  the  direction  of  angle  of  dip  and  steep  sides  of  round,  the 
dip  of  which  is  away  from  the  centre  of  the  hill.  A  careful 
consideration  of  these  circumstances  leaves  little  doubt  but  that  the 
knoll-reefs  have  been  formed  in  a  similar  way  to  coral-reefs,  by 
growth  upwards  under  favourable  conditions  of  the  animals  of  which 
they  are  composed,  and  by  the  piling  up  by  waves,  perhaps  also  in 
some  places  by  winds,  of  the  resulting  debris. 

Very  important  interest  attaches  to  the  first-named  of  these 
hills,  Elboton  or  Elbolton, \  as  within  it  was  the  occasional  dwelling 

*  See  the  author's  Old  Bingley,  pages  47-49. 

f  Not  Elf  or  fairy  hill  as  some  writers  would  have  us  believe.  The  prefix  El 
(foreign)  I  have  explained  in  the  origin  of  the  name  Elmete.  Boton  or  bolton  may  be 
the  Teutonic  botn,  a  depth,  or  bolt,  a  dwelling ;  the  whole  word  meaning  foreign 
d-aeellers,  or  the  zrarc.  of  foreigners,  applied  by  the  Teutons  to  their  Celtic  predecessors. 


4°5 

and  tomb  of  the  very  people  who  lony  before  the  Christian  era 
occupied  the  rocky  camp  or  hill-station  I  have  above  described. 
The  entrance  to  the  vault  is  at  the  foot  of  a  small  scar  of  limestone, 
about  100  feet  from  the  top  of  the  hill.  It  has  a  small  pit-like 
mouth,  which  can  only  with  safety  be  descended  by  means  of  a 
ladder,  though  it  is  evident  the  original  tenants  used  no  such 
convenience,  as  old-crusted  footholds  appear  in  the  sides  of  the  cave 
downwards  from  the  mouth.  The  existence  of  the  cave  has  been 
long  locally  known  as  Knave  Knoll  Hole.  It  was  not  however  until 
1888  that  the  Rev.  E.  Jones,  of  Embsay,  undertook  the  exploration 


SECTION    OF   ELBOLTON    CAVE. 

of  the  cave  at  the  instance  of  the  Craven  Naturalists'  Society,  and 
shortly  afterwards  I  had  the  pleasure  of  accompanying  Mr.  Jones  on 
a  visit  to  the  cave,  while  the  work  was  going  on.  Subsequently  the 
British  Association  made  a  grant  of  ^25  towards  a  more  complete 
unearthing  of  its  contents,  and  a  committee  was  appointed  to  act  in 
concert  with  Mr.  Jones  as  secretary.  The  results  abundantly  justified 
the  outlay  and  labour  incurred  ;  great  credit  being  due  to  Mr.  Jones 
for  his  vigilant  and  careful  management  of  the  work  during  the 
exploration.  Ten  years  ago  he  very  kindly  supplied  me  with  a 
roughly-drawn  section  of  the  cave,  from  which  I  have  made  the 
annexed  plan,  together  with  some  particulars  from  a  paper  read  by 
him  at  the  1890  Meeting  of  the  British  Association. 

It  appears  the  deposits  were  in  two  very  clearly  defined  layers ; 
human  remains  being  confined  to  the  uppermost.  To  reach  this  a 
descent  had  to  be  made  of  about  20  feet  from  the  entrance  to  the 
hole,  marked  E  on  the  plan,  where  the  chamber  measures  about  30 


40  6 

ftvt  in  length,  A  15,  and  from  7  to  rf>  feet  in  widtli.  At  12  feet  south 
from  the  datum  line,  A  15,  a  skeleton  nearly  complete  was  found, 
and  in  a  rece.ss  three  feet  further  away  another  was  seen,  while  just 
opposite  in  the  middle  of  the  chamber  a  third  was  discovered. 
These  had  not  been  disturbed  and  were  evidently  in  the  original 
positions  of  burial.  The  one  in  the  recess  and  the  one  in  the  middle 
of  the  chamber  had  been  interred  in  an  upright  sitting  posture,  the 
knees  being  bent  close  to  the  skull,  in  all  respects  in  the  manner  of 
the  present  native  tree-burials  in  British  Columbia  and  other  parts  of 
North  America,  where  however  the  doubled-up  bodies  are  not  placed 
under  ground  but  suspended  in  blankets  to  the  boughs  of  large  trees 
and  there  allowed  to  remain  until  they  decay.  The  skull  of  the  one 
in  the  middle  of  the  chamber,  it  may  be  remarked,  was  crushed  by 
overlying  debris,  while  the  other  two  being  better  protected  by  the 
sloping  sides  of  the  cave,  were  fairly  well  preserved.  In  these  cases 
it  is  also  noteworthy,  a  semi-circular  wall  of  rude  masonry  enclosed 
the  bodies.  Two  skulls  with  some  charcoal  and  fragments  of  pot 
were  found  at  the  west  end  at  a  depth  of  13  and  15  feet  respectively, 
while  at  the  entrance  to  the  chamber  the  human  remains  were  covered 
only  to  a  depth  of  3  to  5  feet.  Altogether  the  remains  of  about 
twelve  human  individuals  were  found,  all  of  the  "long-head"  type 
living  from  2000  to  3000  years  ago.  Other  bones  from  this  layer 
included  red-deer,  boar,  sheep,  horse,  dog  or  wolf,  fox,  badger, 
together  with  large  numbers  of  the  smaller  carnivora  and  rodents. 
All  the  larger  bones,  other  than  human,  have  been  broken  and  many 
split  lengthwise,  most  likely  by  the  primitive  cave-men  to  obtain  the 
marrow. 

Charcoal  with  calcined  bones  was  found  in  three  or  four  places, 
and  at  1 8  feet  on  the  north  side,  at  a  depth  of  9^  feet,  the  actual 
floor-hearth  was  discovered,  together  with  calcined  bones  of  bird  and 
beast,  the  remains  of  a  primitive  feast.  Peat  had  evidently  been 
used  for  the  fire.  The  fragments  of  pottery  found  consist  of  circular 
vessels,  burnt  from  within,  the  concave  surfaces  being  coated  with  a 
layer  of  charcoal,  and  the  outer  surfaces  ornamented  with  diamond- 
pattern  and  other  designs,  shewing  that  these  old  cave-men  in  the 
struggle  for  existence  had  even  then  a  feeling  for  art.  No  flint  or 
metal  was  found.  The  total  depth  from  E  to  F  on  the  plan  is  20 
feet,  and  to  the  bottom  of  the  cave  D,  52  feet. 

The  lower  chamber  was  filled  up  with  clay  and  stones  mingled 
with  numerous  bones  of  bears,  mostly  of  Ursus  ferox  in  all  stages  of 
growth  from  tiny  cubs  to  big  old  bears.  Other  bones  were  of 
animals  addicted  to  a  cold  climate,  such  as  reindeer  and  Alpine 
foxes  and  hares  which  were  in  great  abundance.  In  the  "new 
chamber"  were  bones  of  bears  and  Arctic  hares,  evidently  washed 
down  from  the  clay  chamber.  From  the  presence  of  these  remains 
it  is  almost  certain  the  cave  was  occupied  by  these  animals  when 


4°7 

the  Craven  hills  and  dales  were  still  enduring  the  rigors  of  the 
depart  in-  [ce  Age.  The  extremity  of  the  new  chamber  was  filled 
with  water,  the  roof  dipping  into  it  at  W  on  the  plan,  the  total 
length  from  E  to  W  being  140  feet.  This  pool  was  originally  eight 
feet  deep  but  by  excavation  it  has  been  much  reduced,  so  that  other 
passages  have  been  made  accessible,  one  of  them  leading  into  what 
looks  like  an  old  lead-working.  Lead  in  fact  has  been  worked  in 
this  hill  until  recently. 

Such  are  the  evidences  from  which  one  might  draw  a  lively- 
picture  of  the  rude  life  and  environment  of  the-  dwellers  at  Thorpe 
during  the  remote  Stone  Age.  The  Norman  Conquest  seems  but  a 
recent  event  in  comparison,  for  there  is  an  almost  immeasurable  -ap 
between  the  age  of  some  of  the  lower  deposits  and  the  following  of 
the  Romans,  Saxons,  and  Danes,  down  to  the  Norman  inrush.  Tin- 
lands  here  had  been  held  by  the  Anglo  Saxon  or  Viking  descendants, 
Dringel  and  Hardulf,  and  were  then  given  part  to  Osbern  de 
Arches  and  part  held  of  the  King  by  his  thane,  the  said  Hardulf. 
Subsequently  the  manor  was  long  held  by  the  Tempests  of  Brace-well 
and  Boiling  who  granted  leases  from  time  to  time,  only  reserving 
the  manorial  rights.  The  Proctors  now  own  most  of  the  land. 
The  old  Hall  was  demolished  some  forty  years  ago.  The  Manor 
House,  so-called,  is  now  the  best  erection  in  the  village  and  is  the 
property  of  Mr.  Richard  Proctor  of  Hetton.  It  is  a  Georgian 
building  with  an  ample  oaken  staircase,  and  one  of  the  rooms  is 
oak-panelled.  There  are  now  no  tenements  of  a  greater  antiquity 
than  the  i7th  century,  though  the  time  is  not  distant  when  there 
were  many  old  thatches,  covered  with  moss  and  wild  flowers,  and 
their  wall-stones  brown  with  centuries  of  age,  which  must  have  lent 
an  air  of  very  picturesque  antiquity  to  the  solitary  little  upland 
village.  One  such  tenement,  now  a  barn,  standing  at  the  corner 
of  the  Linton  road,  has  had  its  thatch  removed  and  a  slate  roof 
substituted,  a  circumstance  applicable  to  many  of  the  older  houses 
in  the  Dale. 


CHAPTER    XXXIV. 


LINTON-IN-CRAVEN. 

Numerous  Lintons  — Historical  errors — Local  monastic  possessions — Traditions  of  an 
alien  Priory— Discovery  of  a  remarkable  brass  crucifix — A  brass  seal  of  St.  Michael 
found  near  Bolton  Abbey — Evidences  of  Celtic  occupation — "Borrans"  at  Linton 
— Celtic  customs  at  Linton — Superiority  of  Grassington  over  Linton  in  Anglo-Saxon 
times — The  manor  at  the  Conquest — The  church— Architectural  description — The 
rectors — Notes  on  the  registers — Pre-Reformation  burials — The  old  rectories — 
Local  evidences  of  Anglo-Saxon  and  other  customs — Linton  Hospital— Notable 
houses — Delightful  scenery. 

HERE  are  nearly  a  score  Lintons  in  England,  of  which 
four  or  five  are  in  Yorkshire,*  a  circumstance  that  has 
led  to  some  confusion  in  historical  records.  I  may  as 
well  correct  at  once  one  important  error  due  to  this 
fact,  apparently  first  cited  by  Lawton  and  which  has 
since  continued  to  be  repeated,  namely  that  a  grange  at  Linton-in- 
Craven  belonged  to  the  Priory  of  Old  Malton.  No  such  grange  has 
existed  here.  The  statement  has  undoubtedly  reference  to  the 
farm-house  now  known  as  Linton  Grange  in  the  parish  of 
Winteringham,  three  miles  from  Sledmere,  which  with  certain  lands 
&c.,  there  situate  formed  part  of  the  original  endowment  of  the  said 
Priory,  founded  by  Eustace  Fitz  John  about  A.D.  1150.  He  died  in 
1157  and  it  is  a  singular  coincidence  that  he  should  have  married 
Beatrice  de  Vesci,  the  heiress  of  Alnwick,  of  the  same  family  who 
probably  held  our  Linton  in  the  i2th  century.  But  the  only  religious 
house,  so  far  as  is  at  present  known,  having  lands  at  Linton-in-Craven 
was  Fountains  Abbey,  which  had  been  obtained  by  gift  of  Henry 
son  of  Uchtred  de  Conyngston.  These  lands  consisted  of  three  acres 
and  one  rood  near  the  river  Wharfe,  that  is  on  the  boundary  betwixt 
Linton  and  Threshfield  towards  the  west,  and  five  acres  of  arable 
land  in  Linton  Field,  a  grant  which  was  confirmed  by  Walter  de 
Aleman,  lord  of  a  moiety  of  the  manor.  This  is  probably  the  land 
now  known  as  Monk  Holme. 

I  have  many  times  heard  a  local  tradition  of  an  alien  priory- 
having  existed  in  this  neighbourhood,  although  there  seems  to  be  no 
documentary  evidence  to  support  such  belief.  A  lady  in  Linton  has, 

w  The  bulk  of  these  names  no  doubt  proclaim  the  ancient  and  extensive  cultivation 
of  flax.  The  Anglo-Saxon  lin  meaning  flax,  and  lin-ivyrt,  our  wild  flax.  Linton  in 
Derbyshire,  however,  appears  in  the  Domesday  inquest  Lincton,  which  seems  to  be 
closely  connected  with  the  A-S  hlinc,  a  hill-ridge,  balk  or  boundary,  a  sense  which  as 
Professor  Skeat  points  out,  is  still  preserved  in  modern  provincial  English.  Hemp  and 
flax  were  at  one  time  extensively  cultivated  at  Linton  and  a  few  other  places  in  Craven. 


4io 

however,  kindly  permitted  me  to  engrave  an  illustration  of  a 
remarkable  brass  crucifix,  which  was  found  fifty  years  ago  close  to 
Linton  Beck,  near  an  old  barn  belonging  to  the  late  Mr.  Christopher 
Dean.  No  representation  of  the  Death  on  the  Cross  is,  I  believe, 
known  of  a  higher  antiquity  than  the  6th  or  7th  century,  and  the 
Linton  crucifix  is  apparently  of  a  date  more  than  three  centuries  after 
this.  In  a  communication  from  the  authorities  of  the  British 
Museum  it  is  stated  to  be  "Early  French"  of  our  Norman  period, 
and  they  add,  "possibly  found  on  the  site  of  an  alien  priory,  of  which 
there  were  no  in  this  country."  The  alien  priories  were  all  dissolved 
by  Act  of  Parliament  in  the  2nd  Henry  V.  (1414)  (not  Henry  VI.  as 
stated  by  Tanner)  and  the  whole  of  their  estates,  except  some  lands 
granted  to  the  College  of  Fotheringay,  became  vested  in  the  Crown. 
The  crucifix  is  5^  inches  in  length  and  4  inches  across  the  arms. 
At  each  of  the  four  extremities  there  is  a  hole  pierced  through  it, 
evidently  made  for  the  purpose  of  affixing  it  to  some  other  object. 
Considering  the  length  of  time  it  must  have  lain  on  the  ground,  if 
not  actually  under  water  in  times  of  flood,  it  is  in  a  remarkably  good 
state  of  preservation.  It  is  indeed  the  finest  example  of  the  period 
extant,  there  being  nothing  so  good  in  the  British  Museum  or  at 
South  Kensington.  Although  nearly  fifty  years  have  passed  since 
it  was  discovered,  it  is  remarkable  that  so  valuable  a  relic  should 
have  escaped  the  notice  of  every  writer  on  the  district. 

At  the  south  end  of  the  village,  not  far  from  the  place  where 
the  crucifix  was  found,  there  is  a  field  called  Foul  Kill,  which  I 
cannot  interpret  ;*  though  the  last  word  bears  a  suggestion  of  the 
Celtic  kill,  a  church  or  burying-ground.  It  cannot  have  any 
connection  with  the  A.-S.  Keld,  a  spring,  or  the  A.-S.  cyll,  a  leather 
bottle  or  bag,  as  shewn  in  the  arms  of  the  old  Norman  family  of 
Trussebut,  lords  of  Ribston  &c.f 

Another  relic  of  peculiar  interest  I  am  illustrating  in  this  place, 
although  there  is  no  certainty  whence  it  originally  came.  It  bears  a 
representation  of  St.  Michael,  and  as  the  ancient  churches  at  Linton 
and  HubberholmeJ  are  the  only  ones  in  Wharfedale  dedicated  to  this 
saint  it  may  not  be  impertinent  to  comment  upon  it  here.  It  is  a 
small  brass  seal,  and  the  annexed  cut  d'epicts  its  natural  size.  It 
was  picked  out  of  the  VVharfe  near  Bolton  Abbey  during  low  water 
about  six  years  ago  by  Mr.  Thomas  Roose,  the  intelligent  gardener 
at  Bolton  Abbey.  The  seal  is  hexagonal,  and  the  bottom  flat  portion 
bears  the  device  of  a  human  figure  armed  with  a  shield  and  spear 
having  the  point  turned  to  some  animal  beneath  it.  In  the  middle 

*  There  is  a  prehistoric  enclosure  called  "Foula"  at  Urswick-in-Furness,  where  is 
an  interesting  sheet  of  water,  to  which  a  legend  attaches  similar  to  that  appertaining-  to 
our  Yorkshire  Semerwater.  See  the  North  Lonsdale  Mag.,  Vol.  II.,  page  145. 

f  See  the  author's  Nidderdale,  pp.  168  and  203.        £  Originally  St.  Leonard. 


NORMAN    CRUCIFIX    FOUND   AT    LINTON. 


SEAL  OF 
ST.  MICHAEL. 


appears  a  tiny  object  that  looks  very  much  like  a.  spider,  and  the 
whole  subject  not  unnaturally  suggests  the  story  of  King  Bruce  and 
the  Spider.  Consequently  it  might  be  inferred  X_N 

that  the  object  had  been  b'rought  from  Scotland 
and  lost  here  during  the  raids  after  the  Battle  of 
Bannockburn  in  1318,  when  Bolton  Abbey  and 
other  parts  of  VVharfedale  suffered  so  severely. 
But  the  seal  has  been  submitted  to  the  competent 
opinion  of  Mr.  Joseph  Anderson,  Sec.  of  the 
Society  of  Antiquaries  of  Scotland,  who  thinks 
it  represents  St.  Michael  and  the  Dragon,  judging 
from  the  mascles  on  his  shield,  which  were  given 
in  heraldry  to  St.  Michael.  The  object  in  the 
centre,  which  may  easily  be  mistaken  for  a  spider, 
is  in  reality  the  sun.  There  is  moreover  nothing- 
Scotch  about  it,  nor  can  it  have  an)-  connection 
with  the  monastery  at  Bolton,  near  which  it  was 
found,  as  the  church  there  was  dedicated  to  St. 
Mary  the  Virgin,  and  not  to  St  Michael. 

Traces  and  evidences  of  the  Celt  are  probably 
nowhere  in  Yorkshire  more  abundant  than  within 
the  limits  of  this  parish,  which  embraces  an  area 
°f  J3>235  acres.  It  includes  the  townships  of  Linton,  Grassington, 
Threshfield-with-Skirethorns  and  Hebden,  a  beautiful  and  romantic 
district  that  was  undoubtedly  once  a  strong  and  highly  important 
gathering  ground  of  the  Brigantian  tribes.  Wherever  we  find  the  field 
name  bunvens,  Intrrens,  or  borrens,  as  variously  spelled  on  the  maps, 
we  may  be  pretty  sure  that  at  one  time  such  sites  have  been 
identified  with  prehistoric  erections,  such  as  stone  heaps,  housesteads, 
walls,  rocky  enclosures.  The  root  of  the  word  is  probably  to  be 
found  in  the  Irish  boirecimi,  rocky  ground,  a  word  likewise  applied  by 
the  Viking  settlers  to  places  abandoned  or  in  ruins.  In  going  from 
Linton  to  the  ancient  British  settlement  of  Thorpe,  described  in  the 
last  chapter,  you  pass  a  tract  of  rising  ground  called  by  this  name, 
"  Borrans."  It  stands  away  to  the  right  near  the  top  of  the  road, 
about  200  yards  from  the  road,  and  at  no  great  distance  from  the 
Baily  Hill  described  on  page  404. 

A  singular  survival  of  the  ancient  Celtic  method  of  celebrating 
the  three  stages  of  the  day,  sunrise,  midday,  and  sunset,  the  precursor 
of  our  Trinity,  in  deference  to  the  triune  Head  of  the  universe,  also 
prevailed  in  this  neighbourhood  down  to  quite  recent  times.  I 
gather  that  when  any  person  was  guilty  of  any  offence,  or  upon  the 
judgment  of  his  neighbours  he  or  she  had  wronged  another,  such 
person  was  compelled  to  seek  expiation  by  walking  three  times  round 
Linton  Church.  This  was  no  doubt  meant  to  be  an  invocation  to 
the  Trinity,  or  a  token  of  subjection  to  the  Trinity,  just  as  the 


412 

ternary  division  of  a  Christian  temple  into  nave  and  aisles  symbolizes 
the  same  doctrine,  which  has  also  its  counterpart  in  the  three-headed 
images  and  figures  associated  with  triple-symbols  on  monuments  of  the 
ancient  Celtic  people,  particularly  the  Gauls.  Such  a  symbolization, 
both  in  its  pagan  and  Christian  aspects  no  doubt  also  implies  a 
protection  from  evil  spirits,  and  Martin  relates  that  when  in  the 
Hebrides  he  saw  a  flaming  brand  carried  three  times  daily  round  a 
new-born  babe  before  it  was  christened.* 

Of  Linton  in  Anglo-Saxon  times  little  can  be  said  except  that  it 
was  eventually  made  the  capital  of  a  parish  or  ancient  gemana,  of 
which  Grassington  had  previously  been  the  chief  member.  The 
much  greater  extent  of  cultivated  land  in  Grassington  before  the 
Norman  Conquest  proclaims  the  superiority  in  point  of  rateable 
value  and  population  of  that  township  over  Linton.  In  Grassington 
there  were  six  carucates  to  be  taxed,  while  in  Linton  there  were  two. 
In  Norman  times  the  manor  of  Linton  seems  to  have  been  in  three 
open  fields,  each  consisting  of  60  acres,  or  180  acres  in  each  carucate, 
making  360  acres  in  all.  Only  240  acres  paid  tax  as  120  acres  (60  in 
each  carucate),  lay  annually  fallow.  The  common  and  woodland  were 
not  taxed.  Twenty-six  acres,  or  rather  more  than  a  tenth  part  of 
the  annually  sown  land,  was  set  apart  for  the  exclusive  benefit  of  the 
priest  or  priests,  which  constituted  the  glebe.  Consequently  there 
were  334  acres  of  arable  remaining  to  be  cultivated  by  the  tenants 
of  the  lord  of  the  manor  in  1086.  Some  240  acres  lay  in  common, 
which  in  1603  were  stated  to  have  been  pastured  by  160  beasts,  but 
such  cattle  must  surely  at  this  time  have  been  very  ill-conditioned 
and  lean.  According  to  a  return  made  in  the  above  year  1603,  when 
the  manor  of  Linton  was  declared  to  contain  about  580  tenanted 
acres,  there  would  seem  to  have  been  no  increase  in  the  cultivated 
area  from  late  Saxon  times  to  the  latter  days  of  Queen  Elizabeth. 
Indeed  Upper  Wharfedale  suffered  most  keenly  from  the  Scottish 
ravages  early  in  the  fourteenth  century,  and  never  properly  recovered 
its  old  prosperity  until  after  the  dissolution  of  monasteries. 

Linton  was  one  of  the  six  manors  in  Craven  granted  by  the 
Conqueror  to  Gilbert  Tyson,  in  addition  to  those  Wharfedale  manors 
of  Leathley  and  Bramhope,  already  mentioned.  For  the  share  he 
took  in  the  Barons'  rebellion  in  1095  his  lands  were  escheated  and 

*  See  Pennant's  Tour  in  Scotland  (1772),  page  94.  Canon  Ayre  relates  a  curious 
tradition  connected  with  the  ancient  parish  church  of  Urswick  in  Low  Furness,  where 
the  villagers  are  said  to  have  walked  three  times  round  the  sacred  edifice,  while  the 
priest  prayed  that  their  desire  for  more  water  might  be  granted,  North  Lonsdale  Mag., 
Vol.  II.,  p.  146.  Baptism  seems  to  have  prevailed  among  the  northern  nations  long 
before  the  introduction  of  Christianity.  It  is  exceedingly  probable  that  the  water 
employed  was  symbolic  of  the  Urdar  Fountain  which  issued  from  the  foot  of  the 
World  Ash,  Yggdrasill.  See  Blackwell's  Notes  to  Malet,  and  Magnusson's  Odin's 
Horse,  Yggdrasill  (1895). 


divided  between  Nigel  de  Albini  and  Ivo  de  Vesci.  A  descendant 
of  the  latter,  William  de  Vesci  was  lord  of  the  extensive  barony  of 
Alnwick  in  Northumberland,  and  by  him  bequeathed  in  trust  to  the 
Bishop  of  Durham,  who  sold  it  to  the  Percies  in  1309.  How  or 
when  the  manor  of  Linton  came  to  the  Percies  is  not  very  clear. 
They  were  however  in  possession  of  Linton  early  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  III.  It  was  then  held  in  moieties  by  subinfeudation,  together 
with  the  rectory  which  was  also  in  medieties.  The  church  living 
continued  so  divided  until  1866  when  it  was  consolidated  and 
instead  of  two  presentations  to  two  incumbents  there  is  now  only 
one.  Most  of  the  land  is  now  held  by  various  owners,  but  the 
manorial  rights  are  retained  by  Sir  Mathew  Wilson  Bart. 

The  ancient  Church  of  the  parish  is  an  interesting  edifice, 
occupying  an  isolated  position  near  the  south  bank  of  the  Wharfe, 
and  surrounded  by  its  pleasant  God's  Acre,  which  there  is  little 
doubt  has  been  a  place  of  sepulture  since  the  foundation  of  the 
original  building.  The  oldest  structural  evidences  now  existing 
are  to  be  seen  in  the  chancel  arch  and  eastermost  bays  of  the  north 
aisle,  and  probably  date  from  the  reign  of  Stephen  (1135-1154). 
The  chancel  arch  has  a  wide  span,  being  \2\  feet  at  the  base.  The 
arch  is  pointed  (evidence  of  Transition  character),  and  rests  upon 
plain  imposts,  chamfered  on  the  lower  edge,  while  the  plinth  is  like 
that  at  Burnsall  Church,  also  of  Transition  character.  There  is  a 
massiveness  and  solidity  about  the  jambs  of  the  chancel-arch  and 
the  before-mentioned  pillars  of  the  nave  thoroughly  characteristic 
of  the  Norman  builders,  yet  possessing  features  approaching  the 
Early  English  style.  The  jambs  of  the  chancel-arch  are  29  inches 
thick,  and  correspond  with  the  central  pier-jamb  on  the  north  side, 
which  has  a  round  arch,  28  inches  thick,  and  \2\  feet  span  at  the 
springing  of  the  arch.  The  arch  is  supported  on  the  east  side  by 
two  massive  circular  pillars,  having  square  capitals  plainly  moulded 
down  to  the  necking,  which  consists  of  a  plain  bead  encircling  the 
pillar.  The  base  of  this  pillar,  which  is  5  ft.  2  in.  in  circumference, 
is  also  circular,  and  has  a  deeply-cut  scotia,  resting  on  a  square 
plinth.  The  two  westernmost  arches  of  the  north  arcade  are 
pointed  ;  they  have  octagonal  columns  of  similar  character,  but  the 
arches  are  carried  to  a  much  higher  elevation  than  they  are  on  the 
north  side,  which  produces  a  peculiarly  incongruous  effect. 

The  choir  is  spacious  but  has  a  low  roof  and  the  aisles  are 
continued  along  both  sides  of  it.  When  the  church  was  enlarged  in 
the  1 4th  century,  two  bays  were  added  of  wide  span,  the  arches 
being  pointed  and  supported  by  octagonal  piers  having  better 
moulded  capitals  than  those  of  the  nave,  but  of  the  same  age.  A 
vestry  has  been  made  out  of  the  east  end  of  the  north  side  of  the 
choir,  and  there  are  three  late  Norman  capitals,  relics  of  the  original 
building,  fixed  into  the  wall.  The  east  window  of  three  stained 


4M 

lights  is  a  memorial  erected  upon  the  completion  of  fifty  years  of 
Her  Majesty's  happy  reign  (1887).  The  eastern  terminations  of  the 
aisles  have  evidently  been  private  chapels,  but  no  endowments 
appear  to  have  been  attached  thereto.  The  ancestors  of  Sir  John 
Tempest  (he  was  living  temp.  Henry  VIII.)  gave  a  yearly  126. 
rent  out  of  their  manor  of  Hebden  for  the  maintenance  of  a  lamp  in 
the  church.  At  that  time  the  church  would  be  lighted  by  a  few 
solitary  tapers  and  would  be  without  pews ;  only  two  or  three  seats 
or  plain  wooden  benches  were  provided  for  the  aged  and  infirm. 
The  worshippers  knelt  upon  the  well-trodden  earth  or  upon  rushes 
with  which  the  floor  was  in  parts  covered  and  which  were  annually 
renewed.  Many  of  the  Craven  churches  were  not  flagged  till  the 
middle  of  the  i8th  century  or  even  later,  as  at  Ilkley.* 

There  is  a  piscina,  with  plain  trefoiled  head  in  the  south  chapel. 
The  east  window  of  two  beautiful  stained  lights,  is  a  memorial  to 
Jonathan  Crawshaw,  of  Boroughbridge,  who  died  Nov.  24th,  1864, 
and  Elizabeth,  his  wife  (daughter  of  Thomas  Brown,  of  Grassington 
House),  who  died  Nov.  loth,  1857,  and  was  erected  by  Anne 
Elgood,  their  only  surviving  child.  On  the  south  side  is  a  stained 
glass  window  placed  by  her  four  children  to  the  memory  of  this 
lady,  who  was  the  wife  of  John  Garrord  Elgood  Esq.,  of  London. 
She  died  in  1892,  aged  80.  Beneath  the  east  window  in  this  chapel 
is  a  small  brass  plate  inscribed  to  the  memory  of  Thomas  Hammond, 
of  Threshfield  Hall,  who  died  March  24th,  1685,  and  was  buried,  says 
the  inscription,  "March  27th,  1686,"  apparently  a  year  and  three 
days  after  his  decease.  But  this  is  explained  by  the  fact  that  the 
legal  year  did  not  then  begin  till  March  25th.  In  1752  it  was  altered 
to  January  ist. 

There  are  four  old  brasses  placed  on  the  vestry  wall  facing  the 
choir,  (i)  Elizabeth  Redmayne,  of  Linton,  d.  1718,  aged  77,  (2) 
Anne,  wife  of  George  Hewitt,  of  Linton,  d.  1678  (3)  George  Hewitt, 
d.  1681  (4)  Mathew  Hewitt,  rector  of  one  mediety  of  Linton,  d.  1674. 
There  is  on  the  north  wall  of  the  chancel  a  beautiful  brass  memorial 
to  the  Rev.  Henry  Crofts,  20  years  rector  of  the  parish,  who  died  in 
1857,  aged  48.  He  was  elder  brother  of  Mary  Crofts,  who  married 
the  Rev.  Wm.  Sidgwick,  founder  of  Christ  Church,  Skipton,  whose 
youngest  daughter,  Mary  Sidgwick,  married  Dr.  Edward  White 
Benson,  the  late  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  On  the  south  wall  of 
the  chancel  is  also  a  neat  brass  to  the  memory  of  the  Rev.  John 
Walker,  for  33  years  rector  of  the  parish.  He  died  February  24th, 
1883,  aged  91  years.  On  the  south  wall  of  the  church  is  a  tablet 
placed  between  two  neat  stained  glass  windows  erected  by  public 

*  The  churchwardens  of  Gargrave  in  1728,  complain  that  owing-  to  the  annual 
rush-bearing-  having  fallen  into  disuse,  many  people  are  absenting  themselves  from 
church,  because  of  the  discomfort  of  the  bare  floor,  especially  in  winter-time. 


subscription  in  memory  of  John  Marker,  for  35  years  master  of 
Thresh  field  Grammar  School,  and  parish-clerk  of  the  church,  who 
died  Aiii,'.  iith,  1871,  aged  66.  Beneath  this  brass  is  an  original 
pointed  ;md  cusped  recess  in  the  wall,  6^  feet  wide,  evidently 
intended  for  an  effigy.  Also  to  the  west  of  it,  near  the  south 
doorway  is  another  similar  recess.  Likewise  in  the  north  wall  is  a 
tomb-recess,  6±  feet  wide,  without  monument.  There  are  also 
inscriptions  to  members  of  the  Fountaine  family,  founders  of  Linton 
Hospital. 

The  west  window  of  the  north  aisle  has  two  pointed  lights, 
pierced  at  the  angle  of  the  mullion,  which  has  a  flat  fillet,  deep  set, 
evidently  of  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Outside  the 
mullion  is  flush  wich  the  wall.  Another  two-light  window  on  the 
north  side,  near  the  font,  is  of  similar  character,  the  external  jambs 
being  flush  with  the  wall.  The  principal  west  window  is  set  back 
somewhat,  and  in  better  style,  though  poor  Decorated,  having  a 
hood-moulding  and  a  double  plinth,  the  lower  of  which  is  carried 
round  the  buttresses.  There  is  no  tower,  but  a  contemporary,  late 
thirteenth  century,  bell-turret,  having  rather  depressed  head-openings 
in  pairs  on  each  of  the  four  sides.  In  1861  it  was  carefully  restored, 
together  with  the  rest  of  the  church,  by  Mr.  John  Varley,  who  also 
restored  the  old  church  at  Burnsall.  The  porch  was  then  built  and 
all  the  roofs  and  seats  were  renewed. 

During  the  restoration  an  ancient  stone  altar  was  discovered, 
which  is  now  placed  against  the  east  wall  of  the  south  chapel.  It 
measures  sixty-six  inches  long,  thirty-one  inches  wide,  and  seven 
inches  thick,  the  chamfer  on  the  front  being  four-and-a-half  inches 
deep.  It  bears  the  usual  five  symbolical  crosses.  Here  also  is  part 
of  a  plain  stone  cross-head,  twelve-and-a-half  inches  wide  at  the  arms 
and  thirteen-and-a-half  inches  in  length.  The  font  is  Norman,  a 
plain,  cheese-shaped  bowl  eight  feet  one  inch  in  circumference, 
having  simple  mouldings  at  the  top  and  bottom,  and  resting  on  a 
modern  octagonal  base.  In  the  churchyard  is  an  old  sun-dial,  and 
near  the  gates  is  a  house  which  at  one  time  was  an  inn. 

A  catalogue  of  the  rectors  of  the  two  medieties  of  the  church  is 
given  by  Whitaker  from  1229.  Few  clergy-lists  begin  so  early  a^> 
this.  Biographical  sketches  of  the  incumbents  of  this  ancient  parish 
would  provide  many  a  useful  and  instructive  story  and  prove  an 
interesting  souvenir  of  its  past  life.  The  materials  however,  for  such 
a  treatise  are,  it  is  to  be  feared,  but  scant.  Among  the  later  rectors 
was  the  Rev.  Jas.  Roberts,  who  died  in  1733.  He  was  something  of 
an  antiquary,  with  a  disposition  for  examining  monuments  and 
memorials  of  bygone  peoples.  Dr.  Richardson  records  the  assistance 
he  derived  from  Mr.  Roberts  respecting  the  Roman  road  from 
Manchester  to  Ilkley,  where  in  places,  he  says,  it  was  a  paved  way, 
above  fourteen  feet  wide,  and  neatly  set  with  the  stones  of  the 


416 

country.  He  was  succeeded  at  Linton  by  the  Rev.  Benjamin  Smith, 
a  nephew  of  the  great  Sir  Isaac  Newton.  He  held  a  moiety  of 
the  living  for  more  than  forty  years  and  died  at  Linton  in  1776. 
Sir  Isaac  left  him  estates  worth  ^500  per  annum,  much  of  which 
he  seems  to  have  dissipated  in  excesses  abroad.  Necessity  eventually 
obliged  him  to  adopt  a  profession,  and  taking  holy  orders,  he  at  the 
age  of  thirty-two  became  joint  incumbent  of  Linton.  The  position 
he  always  looked  upon  as  a  species  of  banishment,  despising  both 
the  country  and  its  people,  whom  he  did  not  disdain  to  call  "  baptised 
brutes."  But  however  marked  at  that  era  the  intellectual  contrast 
may  have  been  between  the  parson  and  his  flock,  it  is  certain  there 
was  little  sympathy  between  them,  which  calls  to  mind  an  idea  of 
Matthew  Prior,  who  once  declared  that  "from  ignorance  our  comfort 
flows,  the  only  wretched  are  the  wise."  The  late  Rev.  Joshua  Hart, 
vicar  of  Otley,  tells  a  story  of  how  on  one  occasion  the  poet  Maude, 
of  Burley,  wrote  to  Mr.  Smith  proffering  some  information  about  his 
late  distinguished  uncle,  which  he  thought  might  be  of  interest  to 
him.  Mr.  Smith  replied  grumpily,  but  invited  Mr.  Maude  to  his  table 
at  twenty  miles  distance,  while  at  the  same  time  he  did  not  forget  to 
execrate  the  country  where  he  lived,  adding  that  he  believed 
Providence  had  placed  him  there  to  expiate  for  the  sins  of  his  youth. 
On  the  death,  in  1866,  of  the  Rev.  Alex.  D.  Nowell,  M.A.,  the 
two  medieties  were,  as  stated,  consolidated,  and  the  Rev.  John 
Walker,  who  had  held  one  mediety  since  1850,  became  sole  rector. 
He  was  succeeded  in  1883  by  the  Rev.  Edward  W.  Brereton,  M.A., 
who  resigned  in  1890,  and  who  during  his  seven  years'  incumbency 
greatly  earned  the  esteem  of  the  parishioners.  The  Rev.  Wm. 
Aston,  LL.D.,  was  next  appointed,  but  only  held  the  living  sixteen 
months,  having  died  in  the  prime  of  an  active  life,  May  29th,  1891, 
being  only  fifty-two  years  of  age.  He  was  interred  at  Linton,  where 
a  neat  memorial  cross  close  to  the  north  side  of  the  church  marks 
the  site  of  his  grave.  Dr.  Aston  had  been  previously  vicar  of  St. 
Thomas'  Church,  Bradford,  and  he  had  also  been  for  seven  years  a 
prominent  member  of  the  Bradford  School  Board.  In  the  formation 
and  working  of  the  Board's  classes  for  the  blind  and  deaf  and  dumb, 
he  took  a  very  active  and  sympathetic  part.  Indeed  in  all  educational 
matters  he  always  took  the  liveliest  interest,  and  at  Linton  during 
the  short  term  of  his  incumbency  he  had  made  himself  extremely 
popular ;  many  improvements  in  the  parish  being  due  to  his  foresight 
and  energy.  He  was  succeeded  by  the  Rev.  Frederick  A.  Colbatch 
Share,  M.A.,  the  present  respected  rector,  who  had  been  previously 
vicar  of  Riddlesden  in  the  parish  of  Bingley.  Of  Mr.  Share's  labours 
in  the  parish  little  now  need  be  said.  He  is  a  hard  and  zealous 
worker,  and  I  believe  has  never  missed  preaching  one  single  Sunday 
since  his  induction  to  the  living  in  October,  1891.  The  industrious 
rector  appears  quite  content  with  the  13,000  and  odd  acres  of  ground 


4*7 

within  his  parish,  and  has  sought  no  holiday  nor  other  means  of 
recreation  than  what  this  large  expanse  of  mountain,  moor,  and 
pasture  affords.  He  has  lately  copied  for  publication  by  the 
Yorkshire  Parish  Register  Society,  the  important  but  ill-kept  and  in 
places  much  tattered  registers  of  his  parish,  a  work  requiring  the 
closest  scrutiny  and  painstaking  transcription. 

The  registers  commence  with  the  year  1599,  and  in  1600  (the 
first  complete  year),  the  burials  number  sixteen.  In  1601  there  were 
nine  burials,  in  1602  they  rose  to  twenty-one,  and  in  1603  were 
twenty-four,  and  1604,  twenty-two.  After  this  they  declined  to 
fourteen  in  1606.  These  years  of  excessive  burials  no  doubt  mark 
an  era  of  epidemic  in  the  parish.  The  years  1602-4,  for  example,  are 
memorable  in  northern  annals,  and  especially  in  those  of  York,  where 
in  1604  upwards  of  10,000  persons  are  computed  to  have  succumbed 
to  a  virulent  plague  in  that  city  alone  (see  page  304).  The  registers 
however  contain  many  records  of  local  longevity.  In  1673  is  this  entry: 

Kllcn  Smith  of  Barhouse,  Griston  [Grassington],  buried  I4th  of  May,  astat.  108. 

In  1659  it  is  recorded  among  the  burials  : 

Robert  Holdgate  of  Garneshaw,  who  was  lost  by  a  tempest  oi  snow  that  fell  the 
3rd  day  of  January  att  night,  was  found  the  loth  and  buried  the  nth  day  of  the  said 
January. 

The  result  of  the  statute  passed  for  the  encouragement  of  the 
English  woollen  trade  is  duly  chronicled  in  the  Linton  register;  the 
first  entry  being  as  follows  : 

1678.  John  Wraythall  of  Griston,  buried  (the  first  in  woollen  by  Act  of  Parliament) 
3rd  October.* 

Wise  House,  an  old  farm  in  the  parish,  standing  high  up 
between  Grassington  and  Hebden,  is  written  in  the  old  registers 
Wythes,  and  it  is  also  interesting  to  note  the  name  of  Hubbercove 
which  seems  to  be  the  same  place  as  the  present  Wood  Nook,  Mr. 
James  Lambert's  property  at  Skyrethorns.f  The  Paley  and  Kitching 
families  have  long  been  connected  with  this  place,  which  bears  in  its 
old  name  a  suggestion  of  the  Danish  Viking  Hubba,  who  is  also 
perpetuated  in  the  ancient  chapelry  of  Hubberholme,  higher  up  the 
valley. 

Among  the  pre-Reformation  burials  at  Linton  are  the  following  : 

18  June,  1 438.     John  Coke,  rector,  to  be  buried  in  the  church. 

18  April,  1483.  John  Toller,  rector,  dying  intestate,  administration  was  granted  to 
Peter  Toller,  Dean  of  Craven. 

22  June  149.!.     Peter  Toller,  rector,  to  be  buried  in  the  church. 

*  There  is  surely  Mime  mistake  in  the  --tatement  made  in  the  \oith  Riding  Records, 
vol.  VI.  ]>.  1 8,  that  the  year  1692  is  probably  the  latest  recorded  year  of  a  burial  in 
woollen.  The  Rev.  Robert  Fisher,  M.A.,  late  vicar  of  Flamborough,  informs  me  that 
the  register-books  of  Flamborough  clearly  state  that  during  the  years  1729  to  1741  the 
burials  in  that  parish  were  in  woollen  and  affidavits  are  made  according  to  law. 

f  In  the  Burnsall  Parish  Accounts  for  1748  I  find  also  this  entry  :  "  Paid  for  4  load 
of  lime  from  Hubercoe  and  fetching  it,  3s.  6d." 


4x8 

There  were  formerly  two  rectories  very  near  each  other,  and  at 
the  angles  of  each  of  one  of  the  outer  basement  walls  was  a  squint 
or  splayed  opening,  a  rather  unusual  circumstance  in  private  dwellings. 
They  provided  the  owners  with  a  convenient  means  for  watching 
each  others  movements,  though  primarily  intended  to  receive  verbal 
messages  in  the  night-time,  when  it  was  not  always  expedient  to 
undo  the  fastenings  of  the  door. 

Many  interesting  old  customs  were  prevalent  among  native 
families  in  this  district  within  living  recollection,  which  seem  to  have 
been  the  actual  survivals  of  the  habits  and  manners  of  their  Anglo- 
Saxon  forefathers,  when  everything  was  in  common.  The  kiln  in 


A   PEEP  IN   LINTON  VILLAGE. 

which  'the  grain  was  parched  previously  to  its  being  ground,  belonged 
to  the  township  at  large.  See  also  HEBDEN.  Each  of  the  small 
freeholders,  too,  grew  his  own  barley  and  malted  it  for  his  family's 
own  use,  and  Dr.  Whitaker  remarks  that  the  large  steeping-trough 
which  belonged  to  the  village  in  general,  was  existing  in  his  early 
days.  The  cows  of  the  village  being  fed  in  a  common  pasture,  were 
also  under  the  care  of  a  single  herdsman,  who  he  tells  us,  drove 
them  every  summer  morning  and  evening  to  the  Green  Loaning,  to 
be  milked.  At  the  annual  Feast  "  vast  syllabubs  being  mixed  in 
pails  at  the  place  of  milking,  to  which  all  the  inhabitants  contributed, 
and  of  which,  if  they  thought  proper  all  partook.''  At  christenings, 


weddings,  and  funerals  there  was  invariably  a  feast  and  the  guests 
were  invited  to  drink  from  the  family's  loving-cup,  or  posset-pot,  an 
interesting  example  of  which  I  have  lately  seen  in  the  possession  of 
a  lady  at  Linton. 

At  Hallow  Tide  certain  herbs  possessed  the  power  of  enabling 
such  who  were  inclined  to  sec  their  future  husbands  and  wives  or 
even  of  recognizing  who  was  to  die  in  the  near  future.*  The  herbs 
might  be  carried  in  the  hand  or  pocket,  or  fastened  to  the  dress,  to 
ensure  the  efficacy  of  the  spell,  just  as  they  are  by-  the  North 
American  Indians,  who  use  by  the  way  a  similar  set  of  prehistoric 
numerals  as  those  employed  by  old  Linton  farmers  in  counting  their 
sheep.  In  South  Carolina  the  medicine  men  sprinkle  the  warrior 
chiefs  with  the  juice  of  a  certain  herb  just  before  they  engage  in 
battle.  Hallow  Thursday  was  in  Craven  generally  recognized  as  a 
holiday  and  the  schools  were  closed  during  the  whole  day.  The 
rector  of  Linton,  Mr.  Share,  tells  me  that  formerly  the  Benefit  Club 
men  were  accustomed  annually  on  this  day  to  wait  upon  the  rector 
and  request  him  to  give  them  an  address,  which  he  did,  usually  in 
the  churchyard,  or  if  wet,  inside  the  church.  For  this  service  they 
presented  him  with  a  guinea.  See  also  page  281. 

The  old  Hospital  at  Linton,  which  is  so  striking  a  feature  in 
the  village,  was  founded  by  will  dated  July  i5th  1721,  of  Richard 
Fountain,  a  native  of  Linton,  for  six  poor  men  or  women  of  the 
parish.  The  income  from  this  and  other  local  charities  is  derived 
from  about  400  acres  of  land  situate  in  Grassington  township.  The 
present  rector  of  Linton  is  chaplain  to  the  Hospital,  having  IMVII 
licensed  by  the  Bishop  in  1892.  Before  this  time  the  chaplaincy  had 
been  granted  by  the  trustees  only.  The  founder,  who  amassed 
great  wealth  in  London,  died  in  1721,  and  left  a  number  of  mourning 
rings  to  relatives  and  friends,  several  of  which  I  learn,  are  still  in 
existence  in  the  parish.  Near  the  Hospital  is  the  old  pinfold,  a 
relic  of  the  time  when  much  land  being  unenclosed  the  straying  of 
cattle  was  a  much  commoner  occurrence  than  at  present. 

Linton  Hall,  now  a  farm-house,  is  a  large  and  substantial  iSth 
century  building,  situated  close  to  the  highroad  through  the  village. 
It  is  the  property  of  the  Rev.  Thos.  Whitaker  Nowell  M.A.,  who 
resides  at  Linton  House,  and  is  the  principal  landowner  in  the 
parish.  He  is  the  second  son  of  the  Rev.  Josias  Robinson,  M.A. 
rector  of  Alresford,  Essex,  who  died  in  1843,  by  n's  wife,  Margaret, 
only  daughter  and  heiress  of  William  Atkinson,  Esq.,  of  Linton,  who 
died  in  1816.  Mrs.  Robinson  in  1843,  assumed  by  royal  licence  the 
name  and  arms  of  Nowell,  for  herself  and  issue,  out  of  respect  to 
her  uncle  Alexander  Nowell,  who  was  an  officer  in  the  Indian  Army, 

*  The  practice  at  Linton  was  to  walk  seven  times  round  the  church  when  the 
doomed  one  would  appear.  Such  superstitions  are  current  in  Ireland  even  at  the 
present  day.  See  Kennedy's  Legends  of  the  frixfi  Celts  page  74  &c. 


420 

and  subsequently  settled  at  Underley  in  Westmorland,  for  which 
county  he  was  some  time  M.P.  He  married  twice  (i)  Maria  Theresa, 
daughter  of  Thomas  Kearnan,  Esq.,  of  London,  and  (2)  Charlotte 
daughter  of  James  Ffarington,  Esq.,  of  Shaw  Hall,  Co.,  Lancaster. 
He  died  at  Netherside,  near  Grassington,  in  1842.  His  eldest  son,  I 
have  already  mentioned,  was  rector  of  Linton.  Other  noteworthy 
and  picturesque  homesteads  about  the  village  are  Troutbeck  and  Ivy 
House,  the  latter  possessing  perhaps  the  largest  specimen  of  an  ivy- 
tree  in  the  North  of  England.  At  z\  feet  from  the  ground  the 
principal  trunk  measures  nearly  4  feet  in  circumference,  while  the 
girth  of  each  of  its  two  main  branches  is  2  feet  9  inches. 

There  are  still  resident  in  the  parish  several  worthy  families, 
descendants  of  the  old  yeoman  class,  who  have  lived  on  the  land 
held  by  their  forefathers  for  generations  and  even  centuries.  Perhaps 
the  oldest  of  these,  of  whom  we  possess  actual  record,  is  the  Deans, 
who  were  living  at  Threshfield  in  the  time  of  Richard  II.,  and 
probably  before.  The  Craven  dales  indeed  have  been  the  nurseries 
of  many  worthy  and  distinguished  folk,  not  the  least  conspicuous 
amongst  whom  was  the  Rev.  Wm.  Sheepshanks,  who  was  born  at 
Linton  in  1740.  He  was  the  son  of  a  small  yeoman  proprietor,  and 
rose  to  high  dignity  in  the  church,  becoming  Prebend  of  Lincoln  and 
afterwards  of  Carlisle.  At  one  period  of  his  life  he  kept  a  private 
school  at  Grassington  and  had  for  one  of  his  pupils  the  learned 
historian  of  Craven,  Dr.  T.  D.  Whitaker.  He  was  I  believe  ancestor  of 
the  present  Bishop  of  Norwich,  the  Rt.  Rev.  John  Sheepshanks,  D.D. 

The  scenery  of  the  Wharfe  is  very  charming  in  the  neighourhood 
of  Linton,  and  the  waterfalls  here  are  one  of  the  "sights"  of  the 
neighbourhood.  The  river  which  is  spanned  here  by  a  light  bridge 
is  of  considerable  breadth,  and  its  shattered  limestone  bed,  caused  by 
the  great  Craven  fault — or  double  fault  as  it  is  here, — with  huge 
rocks,  dark  with  peat-stain,  contrasting  beautifully  with  the  foam- 
white  water,  presents  a  picture  that  is  always  a  favorite  subject  with 
the  artist  and  photographer.  An  illustration  of  it  prefaces  this 
chapter.  The  once  famous  Linton  Falls  Creamery  may  be  seen  from 
the  bridge  abutting  upon  the  river.  The  buildings  originally  were 
part  of  the  old  soke-mill,  but  the  business  was  suspended  about 
seven  years  ago,  and  the  house  with  the  land  is  now  let.  The  large 
mill,  close  to  the  falls,  was  formerly  a  worsted  and  afterwards  a 
cotton-mill,  but  it  has  not  been  running  for  about  twenty  years. 

Behind  the  mill  there  is  a  capital  section  of  a  glacial  moraine, 
composed  of  rolled  stones,  gravel,  and  clay.  In  the  field-wall  beside 
the  road  may  be  seen  some  huge  glacial  boulders,  and  there  is  a 
very  large  one  standing  alone  in  the  adjoining  field,  which  from  one 
point  of  view  bears  a  striking  resemblance  to  a  human  visage,  and  a 
notion  prevails  among  the  young  folk  of  the  neighbourhood  that  this 
stone  will  fall  on  its  face  when  it  hears  the  cock  crow. 


CHAPTER    XXXV. 


AROUND  THRESHFIELD. 

The  sense  of  freedom  and  freshness  among  the  Craven  fells — The  valley  at  Threshfield 
— Caverns  at  Skirethorns  and  evidences  of  prehistoric  inhabitants — Remarkable 
finds — Early  cultivation  of  land— Ancient  customs — The  family  <>f  Threshfield  — 
Local  grants  to  Fountains  Abbey— The  Old  Hall— Inn— Craven  butter— N'otable 
houses — Local  families — The  park — Grammar  School — Distinguished  pupils. 

]S  you  leave  the  main  road  from  Linton  to  Grassington 
and  step  westward  towards  Threshfield,  there  is 
something  indescribable  in  the  soothing  and  satisfying 
influence  of  the  expanse  and  freshness  of  land  and  sky 
and  air  that  envelope  you  here  with  such  magnificent 
compass.  In  the  mellowness  of  a  fine  summer's  eve,  when  the 
declining  sun  lights  up  far-reaching  mead  and  fell  and  scar,  the  sense 
of  freedom  and  of  stillness  is  delightful,  while  imagination  is  rife  with 
the  strange  forms  of  giants  and  fairies  and  all  the  witchery  of  old- 
time  lore  and  legend  belonging  to  this  romantic  Crag  Land.  The 
valley  here  is  exceptionally  wide,  indeed  much  wider  than  in  any 
other  part  of  Upper  Wharfedale,  and  has  possibly  been  an  old  lake 
bed.  Here  and  there  are  deposits  and  mounds  of  debris  left  by 
disgorging  glaciers.  These  mounds  contain  not  only  boulders  and 
pebbles  of  local  limestone  but  also  of  Silurian  grit,  the  latter  being 
said  to  be  exposed  in  situ  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Threshfield  and  also 
at  Gordale  Scar.  It  is  also  conjectured  to  underlie  the  limestone 
at  Kilnsey. 

Threshfield-with-Skirethorns  has  an  interesting  history  extending 
far  back  to  the  time  when  bears  and  wolves  and  bisons  were  as 
common  among  the  Craven  hills  as  rabbits  and  hares  are  now.  In 
the  wild  hill-land  round  about  are  traces  of  primitive  housesteads, 
barrows  and  ancient  caves,  partly  filled  up  with  clay  and  debris,  in 
which  bones  of  the  above  and  other  strange  animals  have  been  found. 
Perhaps  the  most  notable  tumulus  is  that  situated  at  the  north  side 
of  the  wood  at  Skirethorns,  which  probably  covers  the  remains  of 
some  old  Celtic  chieftain.  The  most  notable  cavern  yet  discovered 
is  situated  near  the  lonely  Height  Farm,  at  an  elevation  of  1200  feet 
above  the  sea,  and  but  a  short  distance  beyond  the  hamlet  of 
Skirethorns.  It  was  first  opened  in  1890,  when  skulls,  bones,  and 
teeth  of  bison,  reindeer,  wolf  and  various  other  animals  and  birds 
were  turned  out.*  An  iron  spear-head  and  fragments  of  rude  earthen 
vessels  have  also  been  discovered  in  the  vicinity  of  the  cave.  But 

*  The  discovery  was  first  publicly  announced  by  me  in  the  Naturalist  for  July  1890. 


422 

the  most  remarkable  object  discovered  was  a  curious  implement 
having  a  haft  made  of  a  reindeer's  antler,  in  which  was  set  a  tooth, 
supposed  to  be  the  incisor  of  a  hippopotamus.  It  was  found  resting 
on  a  bed  of  sandy  clay  in  the  Fairy  Cave  or  Calf  Hole  at  Skirethorns, 
and  has  been  stated  to  be  a  relic  of  palaeolithic  man,  but  the  evidence 
for  such  a  conclusion  is  very  imperfect.  Our  Northern  land  was  too 
long  submerged,  and  its  life  obliterated  with  ice  and  snow,  to  have 
retained  evidences  of  such  remarkable  antiquity.  In  Switzerland 
however,  Professor  Geike  has  shewn  that  there  is  a  faunal  succession 
following  the  retreat  of  the  great  glaciers  of  the  third  glacial  epoch, 
and  that  palaeolithic  man  was  certainly  contemporaneous  in  the 


BONE   CAVE   NEAR  SKIRETHORNS. 

Alpine  Vorland  with  the  tundra  and  the  steppe  faunas.  In  the  North 
of  England  on  the  other  hand  it  is  very  questionable  whether  any 
evidences  carry  us  back  beyond  the  Second  Stone  or  Neolithic  Age. 
Professor  Nilsson  in  his  Primitive  Inhabitants  of  Scandinavia,  informs 
us  that  there  are  no  evidences  of  man  in  Norway  or  Sweden  or 
indeed  throughout  the  north  of  Europe  before  this  period. 

My  impression  is  that  all  the  relics,  with  the  exception  perhaps 
of  the  reindeer  implement,  are  of  the  time  when  the  descendants  of 
the  aboriginal  settlers  had  been  driven  to  take  refuge  in  the  caverns 
and  rock-shelters  of  the  surrounding  hills  on  the  invasion  of  the 
Teutons.  Iron  for  example  was  employed  in  England  long  before 


423 

the  advent  of  the  Romans,  although  bronze  was  the  metal  in  common 
use  all  through  the  Roman  occupation  of  this  country.  Iron  would 
not  appear  to  have  been  in  very  general  use  until  after  the  Teutonic 
irruption,  though  Mr.  Ernest  E.  Speight,  reports  the  discovery  of  iron 
knives  in  mounds  containing  a  crouched  skeleton,  near  Grassington. 
The  sagas  of  the  old  Norsemen,  who  peopled  our  dales  in  the  ninth 
and  tenth  centuries,  mention  no  other  kinds  of  weapons  than  those  of 
iron  and  neither  in  history  or  tradition  is  stone,  flint,  or  bronze 
referred  to.  But  this,  of  course,  does  not  prove  that  stone  weapons 
were  not  in  use  at  the  time;  indeed  in  our  own  district  there  is  no 
doubt  they  were. 

Land  was  cultivated  at  Threshfield  most  probably  in  the  early 
centuries  of  the  Christian  era,  and  before  A.D.  1066,  there  were 
upwards  of  300  acres  under  the  plough.  Cu>toms  surviving  almost 
to  our  own  time  can  be  distinctly  traced  to  the  occupation  of  tin- 
district  by  the  ancient  Danes.  Here  we  are  told  there  was  an  arable 
town-field,  a  town-meadow,  a  common  pasture,  and  common  rights 
on  the  moors,  all  interesting  remnants  of  the  Teutonic  or  old  English 
open  field-system.  The  customs  of  the  manor  were  that  at  every 
change  of  the  lord  one  year's  rent  had  to  be  paid  by  way  of  fine, 
and  at  every  change  of  tenant  an  arbitrary  fine,  as  lord  and  tenant 
could  agree.  On  the  death  of  a  tenant  his  best  chattel,  living  or 
dead,  went  to  the  lord  by  way  of  heriot.  The  tenement  moreover 
always  descended  in  accordance  with  the  unalterable  maxim  of 
feudal  succession,  to  the  eldest  son,  or  failing  male  issue,  to  the 
eldest  daughter  of  the  deceased.  The  heriot  dues  are  undoubtedly 
a  relic  of  ancient  villein  tenure,  when  everything  living  and  dead, 
the  men  on  the  estates,  with  their  families  and  cattle  and  goods, 
belonged  to  the  lord,  and  which  he  might  have  seized  all  or  in  part 
during  the  tenant's  life-time.  Their  first  establishment  in  England  says 
Sir  William  Blackstone,  was  by  the  Danes,  and  in  the  laws  of  King 
Canute  the  several  heregeates  or  heriots  are  specified,  which  were 
then  exacted  by  the  King  on  the  death  of  divers  of  his  subjects, 
according  to  their  respective  dignities.  These  compulsory  heriots 
being  eventually  transmuted  into  reliefs,  or  customary  forfeitures  in 
the  manner  indicated,  were  almost  entirely  confined  to  copyhold 
tenures,  which  is  the  life  of  all  estates  by  copy.  But  a  heriot  may 
also  appertain  to  free  land,  that  is  land  held  by  service  and  suit  of 
court,  in  which  case  it  is  most  commonly  a  copyhold  enfranchised, 
whereupon  the  heriot  became  due  by  custom. 

The  first  lords  of  Threshfield  of  whom  we  have  any  certain 
record  were  those  who  took  their  name  from  this  place,*  and  who 

*  Although  the  place  appears  in  Domesday  written  I'rrxi  ln>ri-lt  there  is  no  doubt 
that  the  initial  't,'  was  miscopied  by  the  Norman  transcriber  of  the  original  re-turn*; 
the  letters  '  t '  and  '  f '  in  the  script  of  that  period  being-  very  similar.  Another  example 
will  be  found  on  page  289,  where  Hangelit  is  written  Hangelif. 


424 

in  all  probability  were  descended  from  the  original  pre-Conquest 
owners.  They  made  liberal  donations  of  their  possessions  here  to 
the  monks  of  Fountains,  who  were  the  largest  landowners  among 
the  religious  houses  in  Craven.  Helias  son  of  William  de  Thresfeld,* 
with  the  consent  of  Adam,  his  brother,  gave  half  a  carucate  in 
Threshfield,  with  one  acre  on  the  south  side  of  the  hill  called 
Hareshow,  with  tofts.  Adam,  son  of  William  de  Threshfield, 
quitclaimed  his  right  in  the  common,  and  in  whatever  belonged  to 
him  in  the  place  called  Snocrig,  and  he  also  gave  a  free  passage  for 
carriages  &c.,  over  his  land  in  Threshfield.  Other  grants  and 


THE   OLD    HALL,   THRESHFIELD. 

concessions  were  made  by  the  same  family,  all  of  which  were 
confirmed  by  the  Popes  before  A.D.  1260.  Bolton  Priory  had  also  a 
small  estate  here  with  the  tithes. 

There  has  no  doubt  been  a  capital  residence  here  from  the 
Norse  or  Danish  Conquest.  The  existing  hall  or  manor-house  is  a 
roomy  ryth  century  building,  reflecting  in  its  sturdy  masonry  and 
ample  windows  those  social  and  manorial  changes  which  I  have 
elsewhere  spoken  of  as  beginning  to  be  manifested  in  the  latter 
days  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  There  are  extensive  foundations  of  other 

*  A  daughter  of  Helias  de  Threshfield  married  William  de  Clapham,  ancestor  of 
the  Claphams,  lords  of  Beamsley,  (see  page  329). 


425 

buildings  on  tin-  south  side  of  it,  the  remains  no  doubt  of  some 
.Ming  mansion,  or  offices  appurtenant  to  the  hall.  The  old 
house  is  now  used  as  a  dairy  for  the  inn,  which  was  formerly  known 
as  the  Ne'n<  Inn,  hut  about  forty  years  ago  the  sign  was  changed  to 
the  more  appropriate  title  of  the  Old  Hall  Inn.  It  is  a  modern, 
well-built  hostelry,  fit  up  with  every  requisite  for  the  comfort  and 
entertainment  of  visitors.  The  landlord's  wife,  Mrs.  Robert  Metcalfe, 
has  a  reputation  far  and  wide  for  the  excellent  quality  of  her  home- 
made butter,  and  usually  takes  the  leading  prizes  at  local  shows. 
It  is  a  regrettable  fact  however,  that  Craven  butter  should  have 
fallen  into  disrepute  with  the  ever-increasing  importation  of  the 
Danish  commodity,  but  local  enterprise  is  now  happily  beginning  to 
move  in  the  dales,  and  with  our  rich  pastures, — the  greenest  and 
sweetest  on  earth  '. — there  is  no  reason  why  the  product  of  Craven 
churns  should  not  only  equal  but  excel  in  every  particular  the 
imported  article. 

On  the  village  green  are  the  old  stocks  and  a  pleasing  May 
Pole.  There  is  also  here  a  good  modern  house,  which  may  be 
noted  for  its  substantial  projecting  porch  built  in  the  Tudor  style, 
with  a  mullion-windowed  bay  and  a  good  circular  light  above.  It 
was  formerly  the  residence  of  the  Hammonds,  a  family  who  were 
large  landowners  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  who  in  the  lyth  century 
resided  at  the  old  Hall.  There  is  another  substantial  farm-house  in 
the  village,  which  sometimes  gets  the  name  of  the  old  Hall.  It  is 
now  tenanted  by  Mr.  James  Metcalfe.  Over  the  door  are  the 
initials  and  date  R.  H.  16 — (probably  1660).  Some  of  the  walls  are 
from  four  to  five  feet  thick. 

The  whole  of  Threshfield,  with  the  exception  of  a  small  farm  on 
the  south  side  of  the  village,  belonging  to  the  Demaines  of  Harden, 
is  now  the  property  of  Sir  Mathew  Wilson,  Bart.,  of  Eshton  Hall, 
Gargrave.  The  Radcliffes  were  a  noted  family  who  once  resided 
here.  Charles  Radcliffe,  of  Threshfield,  was  Clerk  of  the  Peace  in 
the  West  Riding  and  Associate  before  the  Judges  of  Assize  in  the 
Northern  Circuit  in  the  reign  of  James  I.  His  daughter,  Mary, 
married  Major  John  Hughes,  of  Rilston,  who  was  slain  in  the  wars 
of  King  Charles'  time,  and  whose  family  it  is  not  unlikely  built  the 
substantial  dwelling  above  mentioned.  The  above  Charles  Radcliffe 
died  in  1637  and  was  buried  in  the  chancel  or  choir  of  Linton 
Church,  where  his  ancestors  were  interred. 

Formerly  the  manor  of  Threshfield  belonged  to  the  Nortons,  who 
married  the  heiress  of  the  Radcliffes  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VII.,  and  of 
whom  there  is  a  memorial  in  Rilston  Church.  In  the  Roll  of  Attainders 
(1570),  the  manor  is  entered  as  of  the  value  of  ^34  19*.  When 
the  Cliffords  obtained  their  estates,  after  the  Catholic  rebellion  at 
that  time,  the  greater  part  of  Upper  Wharfedale  was  ranged  by 
numerous  herds  of  deer  in  a  half-wild  state.  Several  "parks"  were 


426 

enclosed  for  their  preservation  and  maintenance,  and  keepers  were 
appointed  to  watch  them.  One  of  these  was  at  Threshfield,  where 
there  was  a  herd  of  120  fallow-deer  kept  in  1603.  Many  wild  deer 
continued  to  roam  about  Eskdale  and  Wastdale,  and  over  the  North 
Yorkshire  fells  until  the  succeeding  century,  and  I  have  before 
mentioned  those  still  existing  on  the  hills  near  Bolton  Abbey. 

The  old  Grammar  School  at  Threshfield,  which  serves  for  a 
wide  district,  originated  through  the  munificence  of  a  former  rector 
of  Linton,  the  Rev.  Matthew  Hewitt,  of  whom  there  is  a  memorial  in 
Linton  Church.  He  died  in  1674.  He  was  descended  from  a  family 
long  settled  in  the  neighbourhood.  In  a  compotus  of  Francis,  Earl 
of  Cumberland,  for  the  year  1610,  I  find  the  name  of  Nicholas  Hewet, 
as  collector  of  rents  and  farms  within  the  manor  of  Linton.  Though 
the  old  school  has  undergone  some  changes,  it  is  a  landmark  of  no 
little  interest  and  one  with  associations  that  will  always  be  cherished 
in  the  life-story  of  the  parish.  As  a  lad  I  used  to  listen  to  tales  of 
adventure,  of  "runaway"  holidays,  and  of  a  variety  of  strange  or 
amusing  episodes,  recounted  to  me  by  the  late  Mr.  John  Bentham,  a 
former  pupil  at  the  school,  whose  grandfather  had  been  curate  of 
Linton,  now  about  seventy  years  ago.  The  recollection  of  these  stories 
makes  one  marvel  at  the  vast  changes  that  have  taken  place  in  school- 
life  in  our  Craven  villages  since  that  time.  But  in  spite  of  the  laxity 
and  freedom  that  prevailed  in  the  old  days,  many  a  youth  of  sterling 
ability  received  beneath  its  roof  the  rudiments  of  an  education  which 
laid  the  foundation  of  an  honorable  or  distinguished  career  in  after 
life,  and  who  never  looked  back  to  those  days  of  youthful  happiness 
but  with  tears  of  affection  for  the  old  school.  Among  an  earlier  race 
of  pupils  may  be  mentioned  the  Rt.  Rev.  Dr.  Dodgson,  Bishop  of 
Elphin,  Dr.  William  Craven,  scholar  and  philanthropist,  whose  first 
tutor  was  the  notorious  Eugene  Aram,  Dr.  Thomas  Dunham 
Whitaker,  the  historian  of  Craven,  &c.,  and  others  whose  worthiness 
have  added  no  mean  lustre  and  renown  to  this  little  Craven  academv. 


CHAPTER    XXXVI. 


CELTIC   GRASSINGTON. 

Romantic    scenery   -Archaeological    interest — Grassington    an    ancient    "city"- 
Extensivo    prehistoric    earthwork-;    &c. — Recent    discoveries — A    Celtic    stronghold — 
Antiquity  of  local  lead-mine-;  —Roman  conquest — Bronze  and  iron — Discovery  of  Roman 
coins     Tin-    Hii^-li    Cln-e    encampment — Roman    roads     Peculiar    field-names — Celtic 
traditions     l-'airv  Hole   -Miners' superstitions— Celtic  numerals     An  old  Roman  custom. 

jEW  inland  resorts  of  late  years  have  made  such  a  bid 
for  popular  favor  as  this  romantically-placed  little 
Wharfedale  town.  Bright  and  sunny  is  the  hill-side 
on  which  the  old  town  stands ,  its  southern  aspect, 
pleasant  surroundings,  and  dry  limestone  soil  making 
it  one  of  the  most  enjoyable  and  salubrious  places  of  public  resort 
in  our  dales.  The  scenery  of  the  locality  is  also  of  the  most 
attractive  and  varied  character,  delightful  river-side  walks,  woods, 
waterfalls  and  spreading  moorlands  yield  infinite  entertainment  to 
the  lover  of  picturesque  or  wild  scenery.  And  neither  do  the 
attractions  of  the  district  cease  here,  inasmuch  as  from  an 
archaeological  standpoint  there  is  provided  an  almost  unrivalled  field 
of  interest. 

It  may  seem  strange  to  declare  that  this  little  out-of-the-way 
spot  has  been  one  of  the  principal  cities  in  the  kingdom.  But  I 
have  no  doubt  that  in  far-off  ages  it  was  the  capital  station  of  a  very 
populous  and  important  district,  as  population  and  importance  were 
reckoned  in  those  days.  Recent  discoveries  abundantly  prove  this. 
Viewing  the  country  northwards  from  the  Town  Head  Beck,  and 
including  say  a  triangular  area  extending  one  mile  north-west  from 
this  point  and  one  mile  north-east,  taking  in  Sweet  Side  and  Lea 
Green  and  down  the  hill  into  Grass  Wood,  an  area  of  several 
hundred  acres,  there  is  not  a  rood  of  ground  without  some  evidence 
of  ancient  occupation.  And  if  we  extend  our  observations  northward 
towards  Coniston  and  Kettlewell  and  to  the  other  side  of  the  valley 
above  Kilnsey.  we  have  the  same  repetition  of  prehistoric  occupation. 
Here  at  Grassington  we  have  foundations  of  primitive  camps, 
ramparts,  housesteads,  rude  walled  enclosures,  entrenchments  and 
burial-mounds,  with  their  attendant  remains  human  and  otherwise, 
and  numerous  relics  in  stone,  bone,  flint,  iron,  and  bronze,  all  proclaim 
this  extensive  site  to  have  harboured  a  population  which  in  its  day 
would  well  lay  claim  to  be  that  which  we  now  understand  to  be 
comprehended  by  the  term  "  city." 

The  excavations  made  in  1893  by  my  relative,  Mr.  Ernest  E. 
Speight,  B.A.,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Vorkshire  Geological  and 


428 

Polytechnic  Society,  now  enable  us  to  speak  with  some  certainty  as 
to  who  were  the  founders  of  this  prehistoric  "  city."  It  is  not 
mentioned  by  Ptolemy,  at  which  some  surprise  may  be  expressed, 
considering  that  Ilkley  comes  within  the  purview  of  that  great 
geographer.  But  a  little  reflection  may  possibly  explain  the 
reason  for  this.  Ptolemy,  who  was  the  chief  authority  on  the 
topography  of  Britain  for  a  long  period,  flourished  in  the  middle 
of  the  second  century, — he  is  supposed  to  have  died  A.D.  160 — 
at  which  time  the  community  at  Grassington  would  appear  to  have 
had  but  a  comparatively  recent  existence.  Ilkley  on  the  other 
hand  was  an  old-established  Brigantian  station,  well  known  to  the 
Romans,  who  directed  their  attacks  on  that  place,  to  the  ultimate 
discomfiture  and  apparent  partial  withdrawal  of  the  British  natives. 
Indeed  it  seems  to  me  that  the  early  history  of  Grassington  should 
be  read  together  in  the  light  that  the  evidences  at  Ilkley  afford  on 
the  question  of  the  subjugation  of  Wharfedale  at  this  time.  Upon 
the  Roman  occupation  of  Ilkley  it  would  appear  almost  certain  that 
the  greater  portion  of  the  natives  withdrew  to  other  and  safer 
quarters  higher  up  the  dale,  leaving  the  Romans  and  such  of' the 
captive  Britons  who  remained,  to  erect  the  new  camp  and  lay  the 
trunk  road  to  Aldborough,  which  there  is  the  fullest  evidence  to 
prove  was  accomplished  not  very  long  after  the  conquest  by  Agricola 
towards  the  end  of  the  first  century  A.D.  In  the  meantime  the 
Romans  had  seized  the  valuable  lead  mines  about  Greenhow  Hill, 
above  Grassington,  of  the  early  possession  of  which  there  is 
magnificent  evidence  furnished  by  the  discovery  of  two  fine  pigs  of 
lead,  each  weighing  upwards  of  eleven  stones  and  both  of  them 
bearing  Roman  inscriptions  shewing  that  they  had  been  smelted  in 
the  country  of  the  Brigantes  in  the  year  A.D.  87,  or  little  more  than 
ten  years  after  the  invasion  of  the  district  by  Agricola.  ( .5^  page  187.) 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  extensive  settlement  at 
Grassington  was  also  eventually  subject  to  the  Romans,  although  the 
natives  seem  to  have  been  permitted,  through  the  wise  policy  of  the 
propraetor  and  general,  to  continue  to  exercise  their  ancient  customs. 
All  the  remains  however,  at  Grassington  point  to  the  fact  of  their 
origin  and  continuous  habitation  throughout  the  Roman  occupation, 
from  about  the  end  of  the  first  to  the  fourth  century  A.D.  The 
evidences  for  this  conclusion  are  the  rectangular  form  of  castrametation 
combined  with  the  circular  or  oval  plan  in  the  forts  enclosures  and 
housesteads,  the  burial-mounds  with  their  bent-up  skeletons*,  the 
enormous  quantity  of  Romano-British  pottery  found  on  the  site,  and 

*  The  Celtic  nations  were  slow  to  adopt  cremation,  and  despite  the  Roman  example 
they  preferred  the  old  style,  just  as  we  do  now.  In  the  famous  cemetery  at  Aylesford 
skeletons  of  bodies  buried  entire  are  found  in  proximity  to  cinerary  urns.  At  Stonehenge 
the  interments  vary  in  the  same  way.  In  Upper  Wharfedale,  so  far  as  the  discovered 
interments  shew,  the  combined  forms  are  rare. 


429 

the  disroverv  of  weapons  and  implements  of  iron  and  bronze,  in 
addition  to  many  of  stone,  flint  and  bone,  all  which  indicate  an  age 
of  transition. 

Mr.  Wright  contends  (vide  Celt,  Roman,  and  Saxon]  that  not  a 
hit  of  bronze  found  in  this  country  is  of  a  date  anterior  to  the  Roman 
occupation.  But  does  not  Caesar  inform  us  (vide  Lib.  v.  12)  that 
bronze  was  being  imported  into  Britain  at  the  time  of  his  invasion, 
55  i;.c.  ?  At  (irassington,  however,  the  greater  proportion  of  the 
discovered  metal  is  iron,  which  ?vlovers  thinks  followed  the  introduction 
of  bronze.  He  supports  this  belief  by  the  fact  that  in  the  Pentateuch 


PREHISTORIC    ENCLOSURE,  GRASSINGTON. 

bronze  is  mentioned  forty-four  times  and  iron  only  thirteen,  and  also 
that  bronze  and  not  iron  is  associated  with  gold  and  silver  in  the 
fittings  of  the  Tabernacle.  In  this  light  the  superabundance  of  iron 
at  Grassington  points  to  a  late  civilization,  or  to  a  time  when  that 
metal  began  to  supersede  the  use  of  bronze.  As  before  remarked, 
the  Vikings  of  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries  used  no  bronze. 

But  let  us  now  visit  one  of  these  sites.  The  best  group  of 
enclosures  nearest  to  the  town  is  in  the  High  Close  pasture,  which 
may  be  reached  by  proceeding  past  the  Mechanics'  Institute  and 
thence  as  far  as  West  View  House,  opposite  which  an  old  lane  leads 
up  to  the  encampment  on  the  right.  It  commands  a  fine  view.  On 


43° 

the  north  side  is  a  large  depressed  circular  or  rather  oval  enclosure 
formed  by  a  bank  of  earth  and  stones,  upon  which  there  is  a  double 
row  of  raised  stones — I  have  counted  nearly  sixty  in  all — not  a  little 
suggestive  of  the  so-called  Druids'  Circles.  The  enclosure  is  fifty- 
four  feet  in  diameter,  and  has  been  destroyed  on  the  west  side,  a 
wall  having  been  built  across  it.  Our  engraving,  from  a  photograph 
by  Mr.  Abm.  Lambert,  shews  the  enclosure  from  the  north  side, 
looking  southwards  over  Grassington,  with  the  far-famed  prehistoric 
burial-hill  of  Elbolton  in  the  distance.  The  other  portions  of  this 
extensive  encampment  consist  of  a  number  of  rectilinear  enclosures, 
presenting  features  much  more  of  a  Roman  than  of  a  Celtic  character. 
There  is  also  a  filled-up  well,  five  or  six  feet  across,  at  the  north- 
eastern or  uppermost  verge  of  this  great  stronghold. 

The  few  coins  hitherto  found  at  Grassington  also  point  to  the 
Roman  presence  in  this  neighbourhood  from  the  first  or  second  to 
the  fourth  century  A.D.  The  hoard  found  in  Upper  Nidderdale,  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Wharfe  watershed,  range  in  point  of  date  down 
to  about  A.D.  130*,  while  a  coin  of  Constantine  the  Great — he  died 
A.D.  337, — is  reported  by  Mr.  E.  E.  Speight  as  having  been  unearthed 
near  the  Park  Stile  camp  and  ancient  lead-workings  in  Grass  Wood. 
Mr.  J.  Crowther,  of  Grassington,  has  also  lately  informed  me  that 
another  Roman  coin  has  been  discovered  within  fifty  yards  of  the 
spot  where  Mr.  Speight  found  the  bronze  Constantine.  From  an 
excellent  photograph  of  it  by  Mr.  P.  M.  Grimshawe,  I  have  been 
enabled  to  read  it  as  follows: 

Ob.  ANTONINVS  AVG  PIVS  P.P.  [Pater  patriae]  IMP.  [Imperator] 

Rev.  HONORI  AVG  xxx  cos  nil.  [A.D.  145].     In  the  field  a  figure  standing  between 

the  letters  S.C.,  [Senatus  consultojf  holding  in  the  right  hand  a  hasta  and  in  the  left  a 

cornucopia,  or  horn  of  plenty. 

A  coin  of  this  reign  was  also  found  at  Dowkabottom,  above  Kilnsey. 
(See  also  page  195.) 

Antoninus  Pius  succeeded  the  Emperor  Hadrian  in  A.D.  138, 
and  died  in  161  and  during  whose  reign,  as  we  gather  from  Pausanias, 
the  Brigantes  rose  in  revolt.  This  coin  singularly,  is  of  the  reign 
following  the  latest  of  the  coins  found  in  Nidderdale,  and  never  after 
this  time  do  Roman  authors  mention  the  Brigantes  by  name.  I 
may  here  add  that  there  are  similar  thick  walled  enclosures  on  a 
large  scale,  accompanied  with  mounds,  in  the  ancient  parish  of 
Urswick  in  Low  Furness,  where  a  bronze  tripodal  vessel  or  camp- 
kettle,  has  been  found  that  is  conjectured  to  be  Roman.  It  is 
almost  identical  with  the  one  found  on  Greenhow  Hill  and  now  in 
possession  of  John  H.  Metcalfe  Esq.  J.P.,  of  Pateley  Bridge. 

*  See  the  author's  Nidderdale,  page  435,  where  the  coins  are  illustrated. 

f  The  copper  coinage  at  Rome  was  under  the  control  of  the  Senate,  but  the  gold 
and  silver  was  under  that  of  the  Emperor. 


43' 

There  is  little  doubt  there  was  eventually  established  by  the 
Romans  a  regular  communication  between  Ilkley  and  Grassington 
and  the  camps  on  Addlebrough  and  at  Hainbridge.  A  very  old 
road  up  dale  crossed  the  Wharfe  near  Linton  Church  and  lay 
almost  due  north  by  Hardy  Grange,  where  the  direction  of  it  is 
pp 'served  in  the  name  of  Scar  Street,  as  far  as  Rock  House,  whence 
its  course  is  difficult  to  trace.  Another  communication  existed 
between  Lancaster  and  the  camp  above  Settle,  whence  a  road  seems 
to  have  run  over  Malham  Moor  by  the  Street  and  Ebor  (Heber)? 
(iate  through  Skirethorns  (where  has  been  found  quantities  of 
Roman-British  pottery,  together  with  much  chipped  flint)  and  so  by 
Grassington  over  Greenhow  Hill  to  Pateley  Bridge  and  Ripon,  where 
it  joined  the  great  Watling  Street,  three  miles  east  of  that  city. 
The  Emperor  Severus,  who  died  at  York  in  211,  is  well  known 
to  have  visited  many  of  the  Roman  camps  in  various  parts  of 
Yorkshire,  and  those  at  Ilkley  and  Bainbridge  he  ordered  to  be 
rebuilt.  The  fame  of  his  exploits  seems  to  be  perpetuated  in  the 
name  of  Severs  Hill  at  Ilkley,  and  at  Grassington  Mr.  Carlisle  tells 
me  that  he  farms  a  seven-acre  field  adjoining  the  Wharfe  near 
Ghaistrills  which  bears  the  unaccountable  name  of  Severs  Stone. 
Then  again,  below  the  High  Close  encampment  are  two  pieces  of 
now  enclosed  land  called  High  and  Low  Borrans  (see  page  411),  and 
close  to  Grass  Wood  is  an  elevated  site  known  as  Belfort.  Gallion 
Thorn  is  also  the  curious  name  of  a  meadow  divided  by  what  is 
called  Hardy  Grange  Croft,  near  the  old  road  above  mentioned. 
They  are  both  the  joint  property  of  Mrs.  Thomas  Nicholls,  Mrs. 
John  Brown,  and  Mrs.  John,  daughters  of  the  late  Mr.  Richard 
Parker,  who  lived  at  Edge  Side  farm  going  towards  Grassington 
Moor. 

The  usual  Celtic  traditions  of  fairy-lore  cling  to  the  district, 
while  the  dreaded  "barguest"  used  to  turn  up  at  every  lonely  corner. 
The  fairies,  however,  harboured  the  quietest  recesses  of  the  rocks. 
One  haunt  of  these  mysterious  little  beings  may  be  reached  by 
descending  from  the  High  Close  encampment  and  a  field-path 
followed  into  Cove  Lane  at  Garrs  End.  Near  here  there  is  a  large 
mound,  which  may  have  also  some  Celtic  or  Anglo-Saxon  association.* 
On  the  right  of  the  lane  and  a  field-length  distant,  is  the  ancient 
Fairy  Hole,  a  low  opening  in  the  limestone  which  can  only  properly 
be  entered  by  such  tiny  sprites  as  the  fairies.  Ordinary  mortals 

*  Gar  is  A.-S.  for  spear  (see  Ramsay's  Foundations  of  England,  page  169,  Girrs  is 
also  A.-S.  for  grass  (meadow).  In  its  Celtic  relationship  Gars,  or  ghars  may  be  one  of 
the  names  of  the  old  sun-god  Apollo,  the  most  common  being  maponnos  and  grannos, 
in  old  Welsh,  mapon,  boy  or  male-child.  Grannos  is  probably  to  be  referred  to  the 
same  origin  as  the  Sanskrit  verb ghar}  to  glow;  burn  or  shine;  the  name  also  appears 
in  the  Irish  grainne,  originally  a  dawn-goddess  or  a  moon-goddess.  See  Rhys'  Hibbert 
Lectures,  146,  510,  &c.  See  also  page  .234. 


432 

must  descend  to  an  access  on  all  fours.*  Some  yards  away  is  the 
Cove  Hole,  a  long  wedge-shaped  cave,  twelve  feet  high  and  forty 
feet  through  to  the  far  side.  It  is  dry  now,  but  there  is  no  doubt  it 
has  been  formed  by  the  action  of  running  water,  as  the  old  channel 
can  be  traced  upwards  from  the  further  extremity  of  it.  The  writer 
remembers  many  years  ago  visiting  this  quiet  spot  for  the  first 
time  during  the  twilight  of  a  late  autumn  evening.  With  thoughts 
of  ancient  fairy-lore  flitting  through  his  mind  he  penetrated  the 
deepening  gloom  of  the  cavern  when  in  the  dim  light  of  the  opening 
at  the  far  end,  the  gaunt  and  almost  complete  skeleton  of  a  horse 
suddenly  appeared  before  him.  His  first  impulse  was  that  the  fairies 
must  be  playing  their  little  tricks,  but  on  secondary  consideration  it 
was  evident  that  some  mischievous  wights  of  larger  growth  had 
dragged  the  bleached  frame  of  bones  to  the  far  opening  of  the  cave 
intending  no  doubt  to  startle  human  intruders. 

Another  peculiarly  Celtic  tradition  prevailed  here  down  to  quite 
recent  days,  in  fact  as  long  as  the  local  lead  mines  continued  to  be  used, 
(and  they  have  been  worked  from  near  the  birth-time  of  Christianity,) 
the  strange  belief  was  current.  Both  native  and  Cornish  miners  were 
employed  at  Grassington  and  both  classes  seem  to  have  been  imbued 
with  the  same  notion,  namely  if  any  unusual  sound  was  heard  in  the 
mines  they  believed  it  to  be  a  supernatural  warning  of  pending 
disaster,  and  nothing  would  induce  the  men  to  continue  working 
unless  special  precautions  were  forthwith  taken  for  their  safety.  The 
noises  were  said  to  proceed  from  some  invisible  beings  called 
Knockers,  who  were  invariably  heard  making  their  mysterious  rap, 
tap,  just  before  any  accident  occurred. 

At  one  time  also  probably  nearly  every  house  had  a  horse-shoe 
hung  up  on  one  or  more  of  its  doors,  as  a  protection  against  the 
wiles  of  wisemen  and  witches,  a  belief  that  is  also  characteristically 
Celtic  in  its  origin.  On  the  summit  of  Ingleborough  there  were  a 
number  of  horse-shoe  shaped  foundations  of  ancient  British  huts, 
which  I  have  described  in  my  Craven  Highlands  (page  239).  Stones 
with  holes  through  them  were  employed  for  the  same  purpose  as  the 
horse-shoes,  and  are  no  doubt  akin  to  the  primitive  hammer-stones 
and  celts,  mentioned  in  the  lays  of  the  Sagas.f  I  may  furthermore 
mention  a  paper  contributed  to  the  Antiquary,\  by  my  relative  Mr. 
Ernert  E.Speight,  on  "Celtic  Numerals  in  Upper  Wharfedale "  in 
which  he  shews  how  the  old  language  of  the  Britons  has  survived  in 

*  "Fairy  pipes"  used  to  be  found  about  Cove  Hole  and  Fairy  Hole,  examples  of 
such  pipes  (dating  from  1600  to  1729),  are  figured  by  Mr.  Llewellyn  Jewitt  in  the 
Reliquary,  Vol.  3,  (1862-3).  Raleigh  is  thought  to  have  introduced  tobacco  into 
England  on  his  return  from  America  in  1586,  and  in  the  old  Chetham  Hospital, 
Manchester,  the  first  'quiet  pipe'  of  it  is  said  to  have  been  smoked.  But  some  kind  of 
weed  seems  to  have  been  smoked  in  this  country  long  before  Raleigh's  time. 

|  See  the  author's  Richmviidshiie^  page  292.       J  November  1893. 


433 

thi.s  district  to  our  own  time,  as  sheep-scoring  numbers  or  as  counting 
out  formula  in  child-sanies.  I'.v  inquiry  amongst  the  older  inhabitants 
of  (irassington  Mr.  Speight  discovered  six  variants,  which  lie  has 
represented  by  the  system  of  phonetics  advocated  by  Dr.  Henry  Sweet.* 
To  these  interesting  evidences  of  Celtic  belonging  I  may  add 
the  occurrence  of  a  distinctly  Roman  custom,  which  prevailed  in  the 
district  down  to.  the  present  century.  On  the  occasions  of  chartered 
fairs  or  great  annual  gatherings  at  such  places  for  example  as 
Kmbsay,  Kilnsey,  and  Appletrewick,  where  one  inn  normally  sufficed 
for  the  needs  of  village  and  traveller,  it  was  the  practice  to  make 
temporary  use  of  certain  private  houses  for  the  entertainment  of  the 
extra  incoming  of  visitors  at  these  times.  A  special  permit  or  license, 
however,  was  necessary  and  the  holder  of  such  privilege  was  obliged 
to  hang  a  branch  of  thorn,  ash,  ivy,  or  holly-bush  over  the  door  of 
his  house  as  an  indication  that  it  was  an  open  hostelry.  This  is 
undoubtedly  a  survival  of  the  ancient  Roman  practice  of  proclaiming 
the  habitat  of  a  tavern,  whence  the  saying  I'inuin  rcndibilc  hedera  non 
f$t  c/>//s,  or  as  our  venerable  proverb  saith,  "good  wine  needs  no 
bush,"  which  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add,  means  that  a  good 
article  needs  no  canvassing.  The  Roman  bush  was  most  commonly 
of  ivy,  as  that  plant  was  dedicated  to  Bacchus,  the  god  of  wine. 
Sometimes  such  inn-signs  were  painted  on  wood  or  in  stone  relief,  as 
have  been  found  among  the  ruins  of  Pompeii.  Larwood  and  Hotten 
mention  the  custom  as  lately  prevalent,  in  various  English  counties, 
and  it  is  also  evidenced  on  the  well-known  Bayeux  tapestry  worked 
by  the  court  ladies  of  that  doughty  William,  whose  armed  myrmidons 
in  the  eleventh  century,  wrought  such  havoc  on  the  fair  estates  of 
Upper  Wharfedale. 


During  the  great  national  rejoicing  on  the  occasion  of  the  relict  of  Mali-king 
alter  a  seven  months  siege,  in  May,  1900,  the  inhabitants  ul  (irassington  were  more 
than  ordinarily  demonstrative  in  their  loyally,  partly  from  the  fart  that  the  family  ol  tin- 
late  Mr.  Kdwin  Speight  (the  writer's  cousin),  father  of  the  above  Mr.  Krnest  Speight, 
had  resided  at  Mali-king  previous  to  their  return  to  ( irassington  in  1897.  A  bonfire 
was  lighted  in  the  Market  1'larc  and  a  torch-light  procession  was  formed,  while  a  band 
ol  music  played  all  the  patriotic  airs,  making  a  long  halt  before  the  house  called 
"Matt-king-,"  now  occupied  by  Mrs.  Speight  and  her  family.  Mr.  Kdwin  Speight, 
up  to  the  time  of  his  death  at  Malt-king  in  August,  iSi/i,  took  a  prominent  interest  in 
the  political  crises  which  culminated  in  the  Transvaal  War.  Not  very  long  before  In- 
died,  at  the  early  age  of  49,  he  was  appointed  chairman  of  a  meeting  attended  by  tin- 
bankers,  trailers,  and  all  the  principal  men  of  the  district,  to  consider  the  state  of  affairs 
in  that  disturbed  part  of  the  country,  and  he  was  likewise  chosen  to  interview  one  of 
(he  native  Chiefs.  While  in  business  at  Bradford,  he  had  always  a  great  liking  for  the 
scenery  and  antiquities  of  ( irassington,  and  his  home  at  Mafeking  was  called 
'  (irassington  House."  In  geography  ami  history  and  all  athletic  pastimes  Mr. 
Speight  took  the  keenest  interest.  He  was  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  ( ieographical 
Society,  and  when  in  Bradford  was  some  time  President  of  the  Browning-  Society, 
also  member  of  the  Bradford  Athenaeum  Club,  and  for  some  years  was  Captain  of  the 
Saltaire  Cricket  Club. 


CHAPTER    XXXVII. 


GRAX-I.M.ION    P.-wr   AND    PKKSKNT. 

["he     displacement     ot     Christianitv     (irassington    the    last     stronghold    of     Celtic 
independence      Kxtcnt    of   cultivation    at    the    Conquest      (iarsington    in    Oxford-hire 
Manorial    hi-torv       The     Plumptons     The    Old     Hall,    a    notable    house— Architectural 

description      Ancient     local     families     ( irassington      Beacon      Meeting     of     Yorkshire 
naturalists       \      Paradise     ol      wild-flowers      Beautiful      scenery      Our      Lady's     \\V1I 
(Ihaistrills      Preseiit  aspects  of  the  town      Proposed  light-railway     Old  customs      l.m.il 
dissent  and  effects  of  the  Reformation. 

<ss_^  e-!^f;4  ^  tne  'ast  chapter  I  have  dealt  with  Celtic  Grassington, 
J5^j|  llj^j1.'  and  to  continue  the  story  in  detail  through  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  and  Norse  occupation  forward  to  the  Norman 
Conquest  would  occupy  as  many  more  pages.  This 
part  of  our  subject  need  not,  however,  be  dilated  upon. 
On  the  Roman  evacuation  there  are  good  reasons  for  supposing  that 
the  Celts  kept  their  ground  here  until  the  Saxon  invasion  and 
eventual  conquest.  Dr.  Green  maintains  that  native  Christianity 
utterly  disappeared,  for  when  later  missionaries  found  their  way  into 
the  country  there  is  no  record  of  the  existence  of  a  single  Christian. 
The  whole  country  was  heathen,  he  says,  a  land  where  homestead 
and  boundary,  and  the  very  days  of  the  week,  bore  the  names  of 
new  gods  who  had  displaced  Christ.*  In  parts  of  Strathclyde, 
however,  we  know  that  war  was  waged  between  Saxon  and  Celt  as 
late  as  about  the  year  600,  and  that  not  until  the  year  616  \\as 
Ceretic,  the  British  King  expelled  from  the  old  Christian  province  of 
Elmete  by  Edwin,  the  first  Christian  King  of  a  united  Northumbria. 
But  this  was  a  political  rather  than  a  religious  crisis.  The  Annalfs 
Cambria  record  the  death  of  Ceretic  in  the  year  of  his  downfall,  616, 
and  there  is  so  much  correspondence  between  these  old  Welsh  annals 
and  the  records  of  Nennius  that  the  identity  of  this  Ceretic  can 
hardly  be  questioned. 

It  is  moreover  highly  probable  that  as  the  Rev.  Dr.  Purey-Cust. 
Dean  of  York,  has  pointed  out  the  last  stand  of  the  Elmete  Britons 
for  their  independence  was  made  at  Grassington. f  After  this  time  it 

*  Sfaking  of  England  page  144. 

t  Dr.  Purey-Cust  contends  there  are  no  Saxon  place-names  in  '  burgh,'  '  borough  ' 
and  '  bury '  in  Elmete,  though  I  do  not  see  how  such  a  fact,  if  proved,  can  assist  in  a 
solution  of  the  extent  or  delimitation  of  Elmete.  Otley  and  Hurley  are  shewn  to  be  in 
Elmete,  and  in  Domesday  Hurley  appears  as  "  Burghelai "  ;  likewise  on  Grassington 
Moor,  a  mile  beyond  Spring  House,  in  the  heart  of  Elmete,  is  the  place  called 
"Yarnbury,"  where  is  a  large  circular  tumulus,  which  I  believe  has  not  yet  been 
disturbed. 


436 

may  be  taken  for  granted  that  as  a  distinct  race  they  disappear. 
The  old  sites  and  belongings  are  abandoned,  and  new  habitations, 
laws,  manners  and  customs  are  introduced  in  their  places.  No  trace 
of  the  body  of  Celtic  customs  which  form  the  Welsh  law  can  be 
detected  in  the  purely  Teutonic  institutes,  which  formed  the  law  of 
the  English  settlers.*  Their  speech,  methods  and  usages  were  quite 
different  and  form  the  ground  work  of  our  language  and  institutions 
to-day.  I  have  little  doubt  for  example  that  the  present  market- 
square  and  main  street  is  built  upon  the  same  site  and  plan  as  the 
original  Anglo-Saxon  town,  which  as  I  have  before  observed  rarely 
followed  upon  that  of  the  old  borrans  or  pre-existing  Celtic  settlements. 

I  have  already  pointed  out  the  greater  extent  of  arable  land  in 
cultivation  at  Grassington  than  there  was  at  Linton,  although  the 
latter  was  made  the  capital  of  the  parish  at  the  Norman  Conquest. 
This  fact  affords  some  proof  of  the  importance  of  Grassington  before 
the  church  at  Linton  was  built.  In  Domesday  it  is  recorded  that 
Gamelbar  was  deprived  of  his  three  carucates  of  land  in  Ghersintone 
then  held  by  the  King,  and  there  were  also  in  Ghersintone  three 
carucates  which  had  been  given  to  the  Norman  Tyson.  There  is,  I 
may  say,  an  ancient  parish  and  village  of  Garsington,  three  miles 
south-west  of  Wheatley  in  Oxfordshire,  which  occupies  a  much- 
wooded,  high  and  irregular  site,  commanding  fine  views  of  the 
surrounding  country,  a  position  not  unlike  our  VVharfedale  Grassington. 
From  this  Oxfordshire  Garsington  a  good  view  may  be  had  of  the 
Whittenham  Hills,  where  is  the  Sinodum  of  the  Romans.  In  old 
documents  our  VVharfedale  township  is  often  written  Garsington, 
Gersington,  with  or  without  the  second  "g."  Locally  it  is  pronounced 
Gerston,  which  comes  very  near  the  Anglo-Saxon  gters-tun,  a  grass 
enclosure,  a  meadow  ,  the  word  tun  primarily  coming  from  the 
Gothic  tains,  Scand.  tetnn,  Germ,  zaun,  a  fence  or  hedge  formed  of 
twigs.  Originally  it  meant  a  place  rudely  fortified  with  stakes,  and 
was  applied  to  single  farm-steadings  and  manors. f 

Grassington,  as  I  have  said,  was  originally  in  two  manors,  one 
of  them  in  1086  held  by  the  king  and  the  other  by  Gilbert  Tyson. 
Both  were  eventually  merged  in  the  great  Percy  Fee.  This  included 
in  Craven  Linton,  Grassington,  Threshfield,  Coniston,  Arncliffe, 
Litton,  Kettlewell  with  the  hamlet  of  Stanerbotton,  Buckden  and 
Langstrothdale,  Long  Preston,  Halton  West,  Wigglesworth,  Settle 
with  the  hamlets  of  Claytop  and  Lodge,  Giggleswick  with  the  hamlet 
of  Stackhouse,  Rathmel  with  the  hamlets  of  Winstal  and  Cowside, 
the  two  Stainforths  and  Kirkby  Malham.  In  addition  William  de 
Percy  obtained  at  the  Conquest  a  number  of  other  manors,  including 

*  Making  of  England  p.  140. 

f  See   Blackie's    Place    Naiws    p.     192.       Greasborougfi,    near    Kotherham,    is    in 
Domesday  Gersebroc  and  Gfrsebuig, 


437 

Ilkley,  (lishurn,  Hellilield,  Glusburn,  eve.  In  the  twelfth  century  the 
manor  of  ( Irassington  was  subfeud  to  the  Plumptons.  Peter  de 
Plumpton  was  one  of  the  northern  barons  who  rebelled  against  King 
Jolin,  and  thereby  lost  his  estates,  but  on  the  death  of  that  monarch 
he  did  homage  to  his  son  and  was  restored.*  In  the  reign  of  Henry  III. 
Nigel  de  Plumpton,  his  nephew,  was  declared  by  inquisition  /.///. 
to  have  held  (Irassington  of  William  de  Percy,  rendering  one  mark 
of  silver  per  annum,  a  merely  nominal  rent,  as  he  had  owed  service 
to  his  superior  lord,  being  bound  to  attend  him  in  the  wars. 

It  may  lie  noted  that  Sir  Robert  de  Plumpton,  who  died  about 
1295,  was  tne  nrst  °f  h's  family  to  give  up  the  use  of  the  device 
figured  on  the  seals  of  his  predecessors,  namely,  a  man  riding  on  a 
lion  crowned,  adopting  instead  the  armorial  insignia  of  his  lord 
paramount,  the  Lord  Percy,  five  fusils  in  fess,  which  he  differenced 
by  having  each  fusil  of  the  engrailed  fess  charged  with  an  escallop 
gules.  The  lion  in  its  human  symbolism  of  power  and  courage  is  of 
the  highest  antiquity,  and  occurs  in  the  oldest  records  of  Egypt  and 
Assyria.  Crowned,  as  on  the  two  (not  one  as  stated  on  page  119), 
pre-Reformation  bells  of  Leathley  Church,  it  conveys  the  additional 
significance  of  royal  or  the  highest  eminence.  By  the  early  Church 
the  lion,  observes  Sir  Win.  Smith,  was  adopted  like  the  originally 
ethnic  images  of  the  shepherd,  the  vine  and  the  fish,  though  not 
sanctioned  like  them  by  Our  Lord's  use  of  the  image. 

The  following  abstract  from  an  award  made  in  1483  shews  the 
further  descent  of  the  manor. 

Richard,  by  the  Grace  <>('  God,  King  of  Kngland  and  i>f  Fraunce  and  Lord  of 
Iiland,  to  all  christen  people  to  whom  this  our  present  writing  of  award  shall  come, 
greeting'.  Whereas  (livers  variances  and  discords  have  been  niovid  betwyxt  claim* 
Johanne  late  wife  of  William  Plompton,  knight,  and  Robert  Plompton,  knight,  on  the 
one  part,  and  John  Roucliff,  esquire,  and  Margaret  his  wile,  John  Sotehill,  esquire,  and 
Kli/abeth  his  wife,  cossines  and  heirs  of  the  same  Sir  Win.  Plompton,  &c.  on  the  other 
parte  £c.  By  assent,  consent  and  agreement  of  the  said  parties,  we  awarde  and 
ordainc  the  premises  in  forme  following;  that  is  to  say,  that  the  said  Margaret  wife  to 
the  said  John  Koucliffe,  and  Klizabeth  wife  to  the  same  John  Sotehill,  shall  have  a 
sufficient  and  lawful!  estate  of  all  the  lordships,  mannors,  lands,  and  tenements  following. 
That  is  to  say  the  manors  of  Garsington  and  Steeton  in  our  shire  of  Yorke,  with  all 
other  lands,  tenements,  rents,  services,  and  reversions  within  the  townes  ol  Garsington 
and  Steton,  and  alsoe  all  other  lands,  tenements,  rents,  services  &c.  within  the  mannors 
and  townes  of  Chaddcsden,  Sponden,  Okebroke,  Broughton,  Wormhill,  Whestone, 
Tidswall,  Martini-side,  C'ombes,  Betfeild,  Hurdlowe,  C'helmerton,  Werdlow,  Castleton, 
Burgh,  Newbold,  Pillsley,  Kdinsore,  Calton,  and  I.eghes  in  our  shire  of  Derbv;  all 
which  manors,  lands,  &r.  We  extend  to  be  the  yearly  rent  of  224  marks  over  all  charges 
and  reprises.  And  ower  that,  we  awarde  the  same  Sir  Robert  Plompton  and  dame 
Joane  Plompton,  his  mother,  and  all  others  having  title  &c.  to  the  use  of  the  same  Sir 
Robert  and  dame  Joane,  or  either  of  them,  afore  the  l-Va^t  of  St.  John  Baptist  next 
coming,  shall  make  or  cause  to  be  made  a  sufficient  and  lawful  estate  of  and  in  all  the 
same  manors  £c.  to  the  same  John  Roucliffe  and  Margaret,  John  Sotehill  and  Klizabeth, 

*  But  see  the  tine  passed  A.I),  uu  Siirtct's  S»c.  /'///>  vol.  04,  pp.  171-2)  touching  a 
third  part  ol  th<-  manor  of  Grassington  &c.,  then  held  by  Peter  de  IMumpton. 


438 

lawfully  gotten ;  and  for  defaut  of  such  issue  the  remaynder  thereof  to  the  right  heires 
of  the  said  Sir  Wm.  Plompton,  in  full  satisfaction  of  224  marks  by  yeare  over  all  charges 
and  reprises,  be  recover,  fine,  or  feoffment,  or  otherwise,  as  the  council  of  the  same 
Margaret  and  Elizabeth  shall  advise,  and  be  thought  reasonable  by  Sir  William  Husse, 
Kt.,  our  Chief  Justice,  and  Sir  Guy  Fairfax,  one  of  our  Justices  of  our  Bench,  at  proper 
costs  of  J.  R.  and  M.,  J.  S.  and  E.  discharged  of  all  grantes  and  statutes  made  by  the 
same  Robert  or  dame  Johanna,  feffe  or  feffies  to  the  use  of  them  or  either  of  them,  or  by 
anie  feffments  made  by  the  same  Sir  Wm.  Plompton,  whereunto  the  said  Sir  Robert  or 
dame  Johanna  were  privy  &c.  In  witnesse  whereof  we  have  sined  this  our  present 
award  with  our  owne  hand,  and  the  same  with  our  privie  signet,  the  16  day  of  the 
month  of  September,  the  first  yeare  of  our  reine. 

The  original  award  is  copied  in  the  Coucher  Book  of  Sir 
Edward  Plumpton  and  is  of  considerable  length,  and  deals  in  a 
similar  manner  with  other  properties  of  the  family.  In  1501  another 
suit  was  brought  by  Sir  Robert  Plumpton  against  Sir  John  Roucliff 
and  his  wife  Margaret,  and  Elizabeth  Sotehill,  widow,  for  the  recovery 
of  the  manors  of  Grassington  and  Steeton,  and  litigation  went  on  for 
some  time.  The  property  changed  hands  several  times  as  appears 
by  the  fines.  Eventually  by  the  marriage  of  the  heiress  of  Roucliffe 
with  Sir  Ingram  Clifford,  a  moiety  of  the  manor  of  Grassington 
passed  to  this  family,  and  the  other  moiety  which  had  belonged  to 
the  heiress  of  Sotehills  was  sold  to  Henry,  Earl  of  Cumberland. 
The  whole  ma-nor  a  short  time  afterwards  became  part  of  the  Cliffords' 
fee,  and  descended  to  the  noble  house  of  Cavendish.  It  may  be 
added  that  George  the  buccaneering  Clifford,  third  Earl  of  Cumberland, 
who  died  in  1605  mortgaged  all  the  tenements  in  the  township  to  the 
respective  tenants  and  afterwards  sold  the  equity  of  redemption  for 
the  most  part  to  the  same  persons ,  and  this,  says  Whitaker,  is  the 
origin  of  all  the  titles  to  estates  within  Grassington.*  The  principal 
landowners  at  present  are  the  trustees  of  Linton  Hospital  and 
the  families  of  Hebden,  Folds,  Bowden,  Midgley,  Eddy,  Lambert, 
Stockdale,  Rathmell,  Blake,  and  Calvert.  The  last  mentioned  owns 
the  old  Hall. 

The  1 3th  century  Hall  or  manor-house  of  the  Plumptons  is 
happily  still  standing,  at  all  events  in  part,  having  escaped  that 
universal  destruction,  which  in  the  name  of  "improvement"  has 
exterminated  almost  every  domestic  erection  of  pre-Reformation  age. 
But  the  old  manor-house  at  Grassington  has  long  stood  apart  from 
the  frequented  highways  of  the  world ;  being  situated  in  a  remote 
country  parish  where  the  lords  of  the  manor  have  for  centuries  been 
non-resident.  It  is  a  pleasure,  indeed  it  is  no  common  advantage  to 
come  upon  a  house  which  retains  such  interesting  features,  and 
though  they  do  not  appear  ever  to  have  been  described,  merit  more 
than  passing  notice.  There  are  of  course  domestic  buildings  in 
Germany,  notably  in  Nuremberg,  still  standing  which  were  built  in 
the  nth  and  i2th  centuries,  but  a  house  that  bears  any  visible 

*  See  also  Coll.  Top.  et  Gen.  Pt  xxiii  (1839)  page  307. 


439 

evidences  of  131)1  century  date,  like  the  Old  Hall  at  Grassington,  is 
indeed  rare  in  England,  and  extremely  so  in  Yorkshire. 

Few  houses  of  this  period  I  may  say  were  built  without  being 
fortified,  and  a  state  license  to  crenellate  was  necessary  before  such 
a  mansion  could  be  built.  There  is  no  record  among  the  Crown 
licenses  for  the  erection  of  such  a  house  at  Grassington,  nor  have  I 
found  any  evidences  about  the  erection  of  a  chapel  here,  for  which  a 
special  license  was  also  necessary.  Sir  Robert  Plumpton  obtained 
about  the  year  1280  a  license  to  establish  a  chapel  in  his  manor-house 
at  Nessfield  (see  page  267)  but  there  is  no  record  of  one  at  Grassington. 
His  chief  residence  was  the  old  fortified  manor-house  known  as 
Plumpton  Towers,  near  Knaresbro,'  which  had  a  chapel  attached, 
and  was  pulled  down  about  1760.  It  is  illustrated  in  my  history  of 
Nidderdale. 

This  Sir  Robert  Plumpton,  who  died  in  1296,  was  a  man  of 
considerable  distinction  in  English  affairs  in  the  prosperous  days  of 
Edward  I.  He  was  a  wealthy  man,  and  a  great  builder  and  "restorer 
of  breaches/'  and  some  features  about  Grassington  Hall  are 
apparently  of  his  time.  The  house  would  seem  to  have  been  built 
for  his  occasional  residence,  being  tenanted  by  his  parker  or  forester, 
who  was  responsible  for  the  safe  keeping  of  the  game,  then  plentiful 
on  the  estate.  Sir  Robert  in  1280  obtained  a  charter  of  free  warren 
within  his  manor  of  Grassington  (see  page  267),  likewise  he  had 
"ranted  the  liberty  to  hold  a  weekly  market  on  Friday  and  a  three 
days'  fair,  namely  on  the  vigil,  feast,  and  morrow  of  the  feast  of  St. 
Michael.  He  had  likewise  assize  of  bread  and  beer.  Consequent 
upon  the  abuses  of  the  royal  privileges  which  occurred  during 
Edward's  absence  in  the  Holv  Land,  previously  alluded  to,  Sir 
Robert  was  summoned  to  shew  by  what  authority  he  exercised  these 
powers  within  his  manor  of  Grassington  &c.  He  produced  the  royal 
charters  setting  out  the  privileges  that  had  been  granted  to  him  and 
thus  established  his  right  to  enjoy  them  as  heretofore.  At  this  time,  I 
may  add,  much  of  the  land  in  Grassington  was  held  by  bondage  tenure. 

No  doubt  the  existing  Hall  occupies  the  site  of  a  Norman  house, 
pulled  down  when  the  lodge  was  rebuilt  in  the  thirteenth  century. 
Additions  and  alterations  were  made  to  it  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
It  now  embraces  a  centre  with  wings.  Locally  the  centre  portion 
is  believed  to  have  been  a  chapel,  and  was  originally  open  to  the 
slates.  This  is  the  oldest  part,  which  is  entered  on  the  south  by  a 
small  pointed  doorway  set  in  a  wall  thirty  inches  thick,  the  doorway 
itself  being  only  a  yard  wide  at  the  springing  of  the  arch  and  six  feet 
four  inches  high  to  the  apex  of  the  arch.  The  lower  storey  has  a 
Jacobean  mullioned  window  of  five  lights,  above  which  are  two 
windows,  each  of  two  lights  conjoined  by  a  quatrefoil  opening  at  the 
apex.  The  windows  are  transomed  and  glazed,  with  casement.  In 
churches  transoms  rarely  occur  in  windows  before  the  Perpendicular 


440 

period,  although  in  domestic  buildings  they  are  found  even  so  early 
as  the  thirteenth  or  even  twelfth  century.  Towards  the  end  of  the 
thirteenth  century  the  transoms  most  frequently  occur  about  half-way 
between  the  sill  and  the  level  of  the  springing  of  the  arch  of  the 
window-head,  but  in  aftertimes  the  transoms  are  usually  placed 
half-way  between  the  sill  and  the  top  of  the  arched  heads  of  the 
windows.  Above  these  interesting  lights,  shewn  on  the  plate  prefixed 
to  this  chapter,  is  a  triangular  recess  with  pointed  head,  which  has 
seemingly  been  for  a  statue.  The  whole  structure  is  ingeniously 
fashioned  out  of  three  stones. 

The  north  side  of  this  floor  has  a  plain  double  lancet  light,  the 
external  head  of  which  is  formed  out  of  a  single  stone.  The  jambs 
are  crude  and  composed  of  long  and  short  stones  placed  on  end  ;  the 
whole  outside  being  flush  with  the  wall,  like  the  early  Decorated 
windows  at  Linton  and  Burnsall  churches.  The  wall  of  this  chamber 
is  three-quarters  of  a  yard  thick,  the  internal  splay  of  the  window  being 
exactly  27  inches.  The  east  wing  is  built  of  good  ashlar  masonry, 
well  lighted  with  characteristic  mullion-windows,  carried  in  three  tiers 
on  the  south  front.  In  the  thirteenth  century  fire-places  were  usually 
built  in  most  of  the  rooms  of  the  better  houses,  except  the  halls,  and 
the  shafts  or  pots  were  round,  and  in  the  fourteenth  century  octagonal. 
When  they  were  made  on  the  first  floor  the  chimneys  were  usually 
built  so  far  into  the  thickness  of  the  wall  that  it  was  necessary  to 
corbel  them  out  at  the  back,  a  style  which  is  found  in  some  old 
houses  in  the  Dales  down  to  the  eighteenth  century. 

About  sixty  years  ago  the  old  hall  had  got  into  a  bad  state  of 
repair.  It  was  then  in  the  occupation  of  several  tenants,  and  was 
restored  by  the  owner,  Mr.  Joseph  Mason,  whose  grand-nephew,  Mr. 
Rhodes  Calvert,  of  Bradford,  is  now  the  owner,  and  Dr.  Wilks  the 
tenant.*  Mr.  Calvert  tells  me  that  some  forty  years  ago  he  used 
often  to  hear  the  old  hall  spoken  of  as  in  some  manner  connected 
with  the  monks  of  Fountains  Abbey.  It  may  possibly  have  been 
resorted  to  during  the  occasions  of  their  great  annual  sheep-washings 
at  Kilnsey.  The  Plumptons  were  very  friendly  with  the  heads  of 
that  great  land-owning  monastery. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century  it  would  appear  that 
the  manor  was  farmed  by  the  Scarborough  family  of  Glusburn,  and 
in  1378  John  de  Scardeburgh  was  apparently  living  at  the  Hall,  being 
the  heaviest  taxed  person  in  the  township  (see  also  page  268).  At 
this  time  there  were  nearly  thirty  families  living  at  Grassington,  of 
which  two  were  tailors,  one  a  weaver,  and  another  a  shoemaker. 
Adam  Currour  (see  page  247)  apparently  kept  the  local  pub  !f 

*  Sixty  or  seventy  years  ago  Dr.  Thomas  Hutchinson,  of  Grassington,  was  the  only 
medical  man  for  a  very  wide  district  in  Upper  Wharfedale. 

f  The  earliest  reference  to  a  Currer  outside  the  Poll  Tax  of  2nd  Richard  II.  I  have 
met  with,  occurs  in  a  citation  datad  1433,  wherein  one  John  Currour  ot  Draughton, 
yeoman,  owes  £200  to  the  Abbot  of  Fountains.  See  page  341. 


441 

Anntlu-r  Adam  bore  the  surname  Ga\vke,no  doubt  a  survival  of  the  old 
Xor>e  name  for  a  cuckoo.  At  least  one  Grassington  family  had  settled 
at  the  lord's  manor  of  Plumpton,  as  appears  by  the  same  Poll  Tax. 
In  1513  Grassington  contributed  four  men,  namely  John  Clerk,  John 
Wilkinson,  George  Knolle,  and  Leonard  Hibbetson,  to  the  force  raised 
by  Lord  ClitTord  against  the  Scots,  who  were  routed  at  Flodden  Field. 
About  this  time  there  was  living  at  Grassington  a  notable  family 
named  Frankland,  one  of  whom,  Robert  Frankland,  who  died  in  1504, 
bequeathed  legacies  to  the  canons  of  Bolton  towards  the  work  then 
in  progress  at  the  Abbey,  and  also  to  works  at  Ripon.  John 
Frankland  died  at  Grassington  in  1544,  and  was  buried  in  "the  holy 
mould  of  St.  Michael  of  Lynton."  A  Wm.  Frankland,  who  died  in 
1574,  left  ^3  to  the  poor  of  Hazelwood-with-Storiths,  and  he  was  no 
doubt  of  the  family  who  held  the  lordship  of  Blubberhouses  at  this 
period.  Their  descendants  were  the  Franklands  of  Thirkleby,  co. 
York.  Sir  Wm.  Frankland,  Bart.,  of  Thirkleby,  who  was  born  in 
1638,  married  a  daughter  of  Henry  Bellasis,  eldest  son  of  Lord 
Fauconberg,  and  his  son,  Sir  Thomas  Frankland,  Bart.,  married 
Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Sir  John  Russell,  Bart.,  of  Chippenham,  co. 
Cambridge,  and  granddaughter  of  the  redoubtable  Oliver  Cromwell.* 
In  the  manuscript  compotus  of  Francis,  Earl  of  Cumberland,  for 
1610,  preserved  at  Bolton  Abbey,  I  find  mention  of  the  wood  called 
Ashegr'  and  a  meadow  called  Byggesber  Close,  and  New  Park.  At 
this  time  one  Robert  Smythe  was  keeper  of  the  cattle  within  Grass 
Wood.f  During  the  rupture  with  France  at  the  beginning  of  last 
century,  considerable  attention  was  paid  to  the  old  beacon-hills  and 
to  the  repair  and  proper  maintenance  of  the  signals.  An  old  official 
map,  bearing  date  1803  (see  page  256)  shews  the  position  of  the 
beacons  then  in  service  in  our  western  dales,  and  by  the  lines  drawn 
from  one  to  another  furnishes  the  direction  in  which  the  signal  fires 
were  communicated.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Grassington 
appears  on  this  plan.  Commencing  with  Ingleborough,  the  light 
from  that  mountain  was  sent  on  to  the  site  known  as  Beacon  Copy, 
at  Long  Preston,  and  from  thence  to  Grindleton  Fell  and  Pinhaw, 
above  Elslack  ;  thence  to  Beamsley  Beacon,  Otley  Chevin,  Scarcroft 
Moor,  Almes  Cliff  and  Brimham  Crag  to  Grassington,  &c.  There 
are  nearly  thirty  beacons  indicated  on  the  plan. 

*  See  the  Rev.  Thomas  Parkinson's  Jsiys  and  Leaves  of  the  Forest. 

\  It  was  in  Grass  Wood  that  the  young-  man  Thomas  Lee,  generally  known  as 
Tom  I .cc,  was  tuing  in  chains  after  his  atrocious  murder  of  Dr.  Petty,  of  Grassington. 
The  story  of  tin-  crime  has  been  often  told,  and  need  not  be  repeated  here,  although  I 
have  never  seen  any  date  attached  to  it.  I  may  *ay,  however,  that  it  was  on  Monday, 
July  25th,  1768,  that  the  murderer  was  executed  at  the  Tyburn  without  Micklegate 
Bar,  York.  He  was  25  years  of  age.  There  is  a  small  headstone  in  Linton  Churchyard 
marked  "  T.  P.,"  which  Mr.  Marker  says  covers  the  grave  of  the  murdered  man,  but  I 
may  point  out  that  the  doctor's  full  name  was  Richard  Petty,  a  common  surname  in  the 
original  form  of  Petyt  or  Pettyt,  in  the  district. 


442 

The  scenery  of  the  district,  as  I  have  said,  teems  with  interest, 
and  however  familiar  one  may  be  with  the  locality,  there  is  always 
something  new  to  be  discovered,  some  new  site,  rock,  shell  or  plant 
it  may  be,  or  some  new  view  hitherto  unobserved.  The  present 
writer's  recollections  of  Grassington  extent  over  a  period  of  forty 
years,  and  here  as  a  child  staying  in  the  neighbourhood  with  relatives 
he  must  have  first  learned  to  love  the  quiet  beauty  of  natural  scenery, 
and  to  feel  something  of  the  influence  of  its  attendant  charms  of 
lichen-grey  rocks,  woodland  glades,  and  varied  wild-flowers. 

Although  Grassington  boasts  many  things  of  historic  importance, 
and  many  things  of  interest  to  the  student  of  Nature's  varied  stores, 
yet  the  crown  of  pride  is  surely  in  her  wild-flowers.  Few  districts  in 
England  claim  the  variety  of  botanical  treasures  that  is  to  be  found 
within  a  mile  radius  of  this  little  upland  town.  The  unrivalled  Grass 
Wood — may  it  long  continue  to  deserve  that  title  ! — has  yielded  a 
very  large  number  of  such  plants  as  prefer  a  limestone  soil,  and  its 
beetling  crags  and  loneliest  recesses  have  proved  a  secure  habitat  for 
several  rare  species.  These  include  such  gems  as  the  angular- 
stemmed  Solomon's  Seal  ( '  Polygonatiim  officinale),  Herb  Paris,  Lily-of- 
the- Valley  (which  flourishes  on  the  magnesian-limestone  forty  miles 
lower  down  Wharfedale,  but  not  on  the  intermediate  grits  and  shale), 
Globe-flower,  Jacob's  Ladder,  Wintergreen  (  Pyrola  miner),  Stone 
Bramble  (Rubus  saxatalis),  Burnet-leaved  Rose  (Rosa  spinosissima). 
In  insects,  too,  the  woods  and  their  vicinity  are  extremely  prolific, 
many  rare  species,  including  the  beautiful  Northern  Brown  Butterfly 
( Erebia  blandina),  which  here  reaches  the  southernmost  extension  of 
its  range  in  Britain.  It  is  found  in  that  paradise  of  butterflies,  the 
neighbourhood  of  Grange. 

The  members  of  the  Yorkshire  Naturalists'  Union  visited  the 
district  a  few  years  ago,  a  large  and  interesting  gathering  which 
included  the  late  Alderman  Davis,  F.G.S.  &c.,  mayor  of  Halifax,  a 
gentleman  whom  Yorkshire  will  always  honor  for  the  thoroughness 
and  excellence  of  his  scientific  work;  Mr.  R.  H.  Tiddeman,  M.A.,  of 
H.M.  Geological  Surrey,  the  Rev.  Wm.  Fowler,  M.A.,  Messrs.  John 
Farrah,  Wm.  Foggitt,  H.  T.  Soppitt,  Chas.  Brownridge,  F.G.S., 
Benj.  Holgate,  F.G.S.,  W.  D.  Roebuck,  F.L.S.  &c.,  Hon.  Sec.,  and 
many  another  well-known  scientist.  Mr.  J.  Beanland,  of  Bradford, 
who  was  also  present,  discovered  the  very  rare  Alpine  Bistort 
(Polygonum  viviparum),  a  plant  hitherto  not  recorded  for  Wharfedale. 
Likewise  the  rare  Arctic  Bedstraw  (Galium  boreale)  was  also  found. 
A  singular  incident  happened  on  this  occasion,  which  may  be 
mentioned  as  a  not  unimportant  local  natural  history  record.  The 
naturalists  after  tea  assembled  al  fresco  in  the  grounds  of  the  hotel, 
while  the  recorders  of  sections  read  out  the  discoveries  of  the 
day,  amongst  them  being  a  long  list  of  birds  and  a  few  noteworthy 
mammalia,  including  a  couple  of  species  of  bats.  Almost  at  the 


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444 

moment  that  these  were  announced  a  little  dark  winged  animal  fell 
from  a  branch  of  an  overhanging  tree  on  to  the  table  before  which 
the  chairman  was  seated.  The  semi-dormant  creature  at  once 
recovered  and  was  about  to  fly  off,  but  after  an  amusing  attempt  to 
capture  it,  the  little  thing  was  secured  and  it  proved  to  be  the  rare 
whiskered  bat  (Vesperugo  mystacimis),  which  added  another  notable 
species  to  the  numerous  records  of  the  day!  The  present  writer  was 
a  witness  of  this  occurrence,  which  created  no  little  amusement 
among  the  assembled  party. 

One  of  the  nicest  walks  in  the  neighbourhood  is  from  Grassington 
Bridge  and  up  the  river  side  to  Ghaistrills  Force.  Just  beyond  the 
west  and  low  side  of  the  bridge  is  a  once  famous  holy-spring  called 
Our  Lady's  Well.  I  am  told  that  former  generations  of  dalesfolk 
used  to  resort  to  it  for  its  special  virtues  in  strengthening  weak  eyes. 
At  one  time,  too,  those  who  were  in  ill-luck  and  thought  themselves 
under  the  influence  of  evil  spirits,  resorted  to  this  well  for  purification. 
Like  the  holy-wells  I  have  mentioned  at  Burnsall,  it  lies  within  a 
yard  or  two  of  the  river. 

About  Ghaistrills  the  scenery  is  very  charming,  especially  when 
viewed  under  the  calm  and  soothing  influence  of  a  fine  summer's  eve. 
Then  the  play  of  light  and  shade  on  the  large  masses  of  dark  moss- 
covered  rock,  standing  out  in  the  bed  of  the  river  and  contrasting 
with  the  foam-white  spray  of  the  broken  waters,  present  a  beautiful 
sight,  while  perchance  the  melodious  notes  of  some  thrush  or 
blackbird  is  heard  enjoying  its  evening  song  above  that  even  of  the 
resounding  break  of  the  river.  Few  places  are  better  calculated  to 
inspire  one  with  a  solemn  reverence  for  the  majesty  of  Nature, 
surrounded  by  so  much  that  is  retired  and  peaceful. 

The  path  may  be  followed  under  the  suspension-bridge  in  front  of 
the  Swiss-like  position  of  Netherside  Hall  (see  page  419),  with  its  high 
gables  and  roof-balcony  reared  high  up  on  the  crag  above  the  magnifi- 
cent stretch  of  forest  that  descends  precipitously  to  the  edge  of  the 
river.  The  old  Grassington  "poet,"  JohnBroughton,  alludes  to  this  part 
of  our  walk  in  the  following  lines,  which  are  interesting  for  their  facts  : 

I  onward  pass'd,  fann'd  by  a  pleasant  breeze, 

And  looking'  round  on  the  new-planted  trees, 

A  grand  extensive  structure  then  appears 

Of  Gothic  kind,  the  work  of  many  years. 

It  seemed  on  all  around  to  make  a  mock, 

Built  on  the  summit  of  a  rugged  rock  ; 

With  numerous  narrow  windows  straight  and  tall, 

In  niches  placed  along  a  massive  wall, 

And  on  the  roof  a  numerous  simple  train 

Of  chimnies,  placed  the  smoke  for  to  retain, 

For  by  their  number  it  did  plain  appear, 

As  many  rooms  as  weeks  are  in  the  year.* 

*  Broughton's  little  volume  is  now  exceedingly  scarce.      It  was  printed  for  the 
author  at  Skipton  in  1828. 


446 

The  straggling  village,  or  rather  town  in  the  historic  sense,  of 
Grassington,  does  not  at  the  present  day  provide  much  material  for 
the  student  of  domestic  architecture,  saving  the  old  hall,  already 
described.  The  plan  of  the  town,  however,  is  doubtless  much  the 
same  as  it  was  in  Norman  centuries,  with  its  little  market-square, 
and  winding  main  street,  reminding  one  in  some  of  its  parts  of  the 
narrow  thoroughfares  still  existing  in  Normandy  and  Brittany,  where 
it  is  possible  from  the  projecting  upper-chambers  to  shake  hands 
with  your  opposite  neighbour.  The  oldest  dated  house  seems  to  be 
Chapman's  temperance  hotel,  which  has  carved  upon  its  door-head 
the  initials  and  date,  S.A.P.  1694.  Carlisle's  house  (their  home  for 
many  generations)  at  the  Town  Head  is  an  older  building  of 
substantial  and  picturesque  appearance,  consisting  of  a  projecting 
centre  and  two  wings.  Considerable  improvements  are  intended  to 
be  made  at  Town  End  ,  arrangements  having,  I  understand,  been 
made  with  Messrs.  Metcalfe,  of  Pateley  Bridge,  to  remove  the  entire 
block  of  buildings  at  the  corner,  and  to  add  the  ground  to  the 
roadway.  The  Commercial  hotel  will  be  rebuilt.  In  view  of  the 
growing  popularity  of  Grassington  as  a  visitors'  resort,  and  that  it  is 
intended  to  construct  a  light  railway  up  the  dale  from  Skipton,  these 
much-needed  alterations  are  anticipated  with  particular  satisfaction.* 

There  is  a  very  useful  Mechanics'  Institute,  a  neat  building 
erected  in  1885  at  the  sole  charge  of  the  late  Duke  of  Devonshire. 
It  is  well  provided  with  books  and  papers  and  the  collection  of  relics 
obtained  from  the  neighbouring  earthworks  are  also  preserved  here. 
The  town  moreover,  is  well  provided  with  hotels,  boarding  and 
private  lodging-houses  which  are  well  patronized  in  the  season,  and 
when  the  steam-horse  is  brought  to  Grassington  no  doubt  the  traffic 
will  be  greatly  increased.  At  present  all  communication  is  made  by 
post-mail  and  'bus  service  with  the  nearest  railway  station  at  Skipton, 
a  distance  of  ten  miles  from  Grassington.  The  mail  leaves  Skipton 
at  6  a.m.  and  Grassington  at  8-45  a.m.,  returning  in  the  evening,  in 
addition  to  which  there  are  public  'buses  running  both  mornings  and 
afternoons  daily,  including  one  or  two  early  morning  communications 
on  Sundays.  It  is  a  beautiful  and  interesting  drive,  and  there  are 
many  persons  who  are  of  opinion  that  the  railway  will  not  improve 
upon  it.  There  can,  however,  be  no  doubt  the  railway  will  prove 
a  great  convenience,  and  that  large  numbers  of  day  and  even  half- 
day  trippers  will  visit  the  locality  in  the  summer  season.  Such 
an  intrusion  of  the  steam-whistle  upon  the  wonted  quietude  of  this 
delightful  neighbourhood  will  no  doubt  be  resented  by  those  who 
have  learnt  to  appreciate  the  soothing  retirement  of  these  "  shepherd 
solitudes,"  which  for  ages  have  known  no  other  sound  than  the  cry 
of  moor-fowl,  the  bleating  of  mountain-sheep,  the  songs  of  birds  and 
waterfalls  and  the  rushing  of  streams  among  the  hills. 

":;"  The  first  sod  of  the  new  line  was  cut  by  Mr.  Morrison,  M.P.  on  June  7th,  1900. 


447 

I  have  already  in  the  chapter  on  Linton  mentioned  some  curious 
old  customs  and  beliefs  belonging  to  this  neighbourhood,  and  many 
others  might  be  mentioned.  But  these  are  almost  entirely  of  the 
past.  The  old  annual  Feast,  too,  is  not  kept  up  with  the  same  bustle 
and  joyous  anticipations  as  formerly.  The  event  happens  to  fall 
rather  late  in  the  year,  when  the  weather  is  not  generally  of  the  best, 
and  well  do  I  remember  hearing  as  a  boy  an  old  rhyme  on  the  subject, 
now  perhaps  forgotten,  which  ran  something  like  this  : 

I've  oft  heeard  trll  o'  Girston  Ft •< 
An'  lain  wod  I  gang  thither, 
But  just  it  is  at  Michaelmas  time 
Haith  co\vd  and  stormy  weather. 

But  despite  "cold  and  stormy  weather,"  it  was  always  well  attended 
by  friends  and  relatives  from  far  and  near. 

In  common  with  most  of  these  dale-villages  religious  dissent 
got  a  firm  hold  at  Grassington  after  the  itinerant  preachings  of  Fox, 
Heywood,  Wesley,  and  their  followers.  The  native  mind  was  roused 
from  its  wonted  lethargy  by  the  fervent  oratory  of  these  men,  and 
new  and  independent  sects  soon  began  to  be  formed.  This 
"division"  of  the  people  in  the  worship  of  God  naturally  led  to 
rivalry  in  the  efforts  to  sustain  the  propriety  and  doctrinal  force  of 
each  particular  sect.  Nor  can  it  be  said  in  the  dales  to  have 
been  always  attended  with  the  happiest  results.  But  the  clouds  of 
adversity  have  surely  passed  over  and  left  us  with  a  bright  sky.  In  the 
old  days  however  sectarian  jealousy  told  sorely  upon  the  individual 
as  it  did  in  the  body  politic,  leading  to  all  manner  of  discussion  and 
differences,  followed  by  still  further  discussion  and  the  introduction 
of  new  sects.  At  Grassington  the  various  denominations  had  been 
served  principally  by  ministers  from  Skipton,  but  by-and-bye  they 
formed  separate  congregations  with  their  own  ministers.  The 
Wesleyan  Methodists  were  established  in  1809,  the  Independents  in 
1811,  and  the  Primitive  Methodists  some  years  later.  At  one  time 
too  there  was  a  sect  at  Grassington  who  called  themselves  "  Nazarine 
Cariates,"  but  they  do  not  appear  to  have  had  a  very  long  existence. 
Their  leading  idea  was  that  public  worship  should  take  place  in 
barns,  because  the  Saviour  was  born  in  one.  I  have  been  told  that 
these  poor  followers  of  Christ  had  to  put  up  with  a  good  deal  of 
opposition  and  even  contumely  by  those  who  differed  with  them. 
But  happily  in  these  days  of  improved  education  and  understanding, 
each  may  follow  with  joy  and  equanimity  the  particular  form  of 
worship  he  likes  best. 

There  can,  however ;  be  no  doubt  that  the  Reformation  greatly 
unsettled  the  public  mind  on  questions  of  religion.  The  reform  was 
needed,  but  it  drove,  as  has  been  said,  a  wedge  well  into  the  heart 
of  the  nation,  "  which  at  once  and  for  all  divided  the  rich  from  the 
poor,  and  established  the  distinction  which  still  exists  between  the 
classes  and  the  masses." 


CHAPTER    XXXVIII. 


ON   THE   HIGH    MOORS. 

A  tramp  into  Nidderdale — An  old  road — Natural  history  attractions — On  the  moors  with 
the  late  Mr.  H.  T.  Soppitt — A  search  for  the  bear-berry — An  extensive  prospect — 
Ancient  hill-names — Discovery  of  a  brass  celt— Greenhow  Hill — The  highest 
church  in  Yorkshire — Geology  of  Greenhow — The  Bradford  Waterworks  tunnel. 

TRAMP  over  the  moors  from  Grassington  into  Upper 
Nidderdale,  or  vice  versa,  is  a  most  enjoyable  experience 
to  those  who  are  capable  of  "roughing  it"  across  the 
exposed  and  in  great  part  trackless  extent  of  wiry 
heather  and  bent-grown  fell  that  separates  the  two 
beautiful  valleys.  Some  restriction,  I  understand,  has  been  placed 
on  the  free  wandering  over  these  fine  grouse-stocked  moors,  but  there 
is  a  very  old  road  connecting  Grassington  with  Ramsgill  and  the 
upper  part  of  Nidderdale,  used  probably  by  Briton  and  Roman  down 
through  the  days  of  the  monasteries  to  our  own  times.  For  about 
three  miles  on  the  Grassington  side  of  the  hill  the  road  is  a  cartway, 
and  then  disappears  in  an  ordinary  track,  in  places  swampy  in  wet 
weather,  but  still  well  defined.  The  last  time  I  traversed  it  there 
were  short  posts  in  the  ground  indicating  the  route. 

These  high  moors  are  rich  in  incident  to  the  lover  of  old  time 
lore,  while  to  the  naturalist  they  provide  an  ever-interesting  and  very 
varied  fund  of  enjoyment.  I  have  pleasant  recollections  of  a  long 
ramble  taken  many  years  ago  with  the  late  well-known  naturalist 
Mr.  Henry  T.  Soppitt,  over  these  wide  moors.  Mr.  Soppitt  was  an 
enthusiastic  botanist,  particularly  in  the  much  too  neglected  department 
of  mycology,  in  which  he  was  an  expert  and  enjoyed  an  almost 
universal  reputation.  Every  spare  moment  was  devoted  to  his 
favorite  pursuits,  and  these  were  followed  with  an  ardour  and 
enthusiasm  which  I  greatly  fear  tended  to  shorten  his  days.  Bird, 
insect,  flower,  even  the  most  insignificant  moss,  weed  or  fungus, 
engaged  his  close  attention  with  a  fondness  and  interest  which  none 
but  the  true  lover  of  Nature  can  adequately  comprehend.  On  the 
morning  we  left  Middlesmoor  he  had  been  up  at  four  o'clock  in  order 
to  vertify  a  record  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Goyden  Pot.  After 
breakfast  we  set  out  together  and  explored  How  Stean,  with  its  rich 
and  varied  plant-life,  afterwards  ascending  the  hill  and  crossing  the 
wild,  open  moor,  where  our  eyes  were  gladdened  by  the  sight  of  acres 
of  the  silvery  cotton-grass ;  the  bright  rays  of  the  afternoon  sun 
lighting  up  the  great  expanse  of  it  like  a  sea  of  silver.  Our  object, 
however,  was  to  confirm  if  possible,  the  stated  occurrence  of  the  rare 


449 

bear-berry  (Arctostaphylos  Uva-uni)  on  Meugher  (1,886  feet)  or  the 
Great  Wham  (1,750  feet),  but  in  this  exploit  we  were  disappointed. 
A  close  scrutiny  of  the  ground  failed  to  yield  any  trace  of  it,  nor  am 
I  aware  that  its  reputed  occurrence  in  this  locality  has  ever  been 
confirmed.* 

The  prospect  over  the  landscape  around  here  is  very  wild  and 
impressive,  especially  when  viewed  under  thundery  skies,  with 
sunlight  parting  the  dark  masses  of  cloud.  As  soon  as  you  get  to 
the  edge  of  the  fell  there  is  a  grand  outlook  over  Wharfedale,  and 
one  which  will  surprise  even  those  who  are  accustomed  to  viewing 
mountain  scenery.  Many  rare  birds  are  occasionally  to  be  met  with 
on  these  moors,  and  since  the  Grimwith  reservoir  was  made  the  pretty 
black-crowned  dotterel  has  bred  in  the  district. 

Some  of  the  old  names  on  this  high  land  bear  witness  to  the 
occupation  of  Celt,  or  Saxon  or  Dane.  For  example  Wham  may  be 
the  A.-S.  wem,  a  hollow,  cognate  with  the  Celtic  uaimh,  but  in  A.-S. 
is  also  the  word  /m><i//i,  meaning  a  corner.  Henstones  Band  is  the 
long  ridge  that  runs  some  distance  to  the  south  of  the  Meugher  beck, 
and  forms  a  natural  boundary  to  the  township.  This  has  probably 
nothing  to  do  with  the  Celt.  //<?//,  old,  as  the  entire  word  should  be 
interpreted  in  one  tongue.  It  therefore  suggests  the  A.-S.  Jicdn, 
high  and  sheti,  a  stone,  that  is  high  stony  ridge.  Blackie  cannot 
be  correct  in  deriving  Henley-on-Thames  from  the  Celtic  hen,  old, 
and  presumably  the  A.-S.  ley,  a  field  or  enclosure.!  Such  a  combination 
of  alien  tongues  is  quite  inconsistent  with  what  we  know  of  the 
composition  of  place-names  by  alien  races.  Meugher  (as  spelled  on 
the  Ordnance  Map)  is  no  doubt  the  A.-S.  muga,  a  stack,  a  heap,  a 
very  appropriate  epithet  to  apply  to  this  stack-like  eminence.  From 
a  distance  the  hill  stands  out  like  a  great  hay-mow  or  heap  above 
the  surrounding  moor.  West  of  Meugher  is  Black  Edge,  already 
explained.^  It  stands  as  usual  on  the  township  boundary  which 
skirts  the  north-west  side  of  Priest  Tarn.  To  the  south  of  Meugher 
and  Henstone  Band  are  Henless  Beck  and  Rather  Beck,  the  latter 
making  a  short  and  rapid  descent  from  Rather  Standard  to  the 
Gateup  Gill  Beck.  There  is  no  doubt  this  is  a  derivative  from  the 

.S'n-  I. lira--'  .Stidtic.-*  in  \hidfniali'  ( icSyi)  page  U.J.       I   /'luce  \anus,  page  104. 

;].  The  only  in-tancc  in  \VharfedaIe  I  have  found  where  the  term  Black  doe*  not 
occur  upon  an  old  boundary  is  on  the  north-western  verge  of  Roman  Ilkley  (sec  page 
^45).  A-  a  possible  explanation  of  this  deviation  I  may  mention  that  there  was  a 
statute  among-  the  ancient  Romans  called  the  Law  ot  Finis,  which  ordained  that  an 
indefinite  space  (never  less  than  live  feet  in  width)  was  to  lie  left  unappropriated 
between  adjoining-  estates  belonging  to  different  owners.  This  was  left  wa-te  and 
consecrated  to  the  God  Terminus,  and  where  a  stone  altar  was  erected  and  where 
annually  certain  rites  were  performed,  giving  permanence  to  the  law  that  thus  was  to 
remain  no-man's  land,  or  Jack's  Land,  a.s  we  sometimes  hear  these  unappropriated 
wa-tes  described.  There  is  a  Jack  Land  on  the  high  ground  at  Greenhow  Hill,  close 
to  the  Grassington  boundary — See  Dr.  H.  Macmillan  in  Sunday  at  Home  for  1896. 


45° 

A.-S.  hrathe  (pron.  rather)  meaning  swift,  quick.  Other  equally 
interesting  instances  might  be  cited,  shewing  how  little  corrupted 
from  their  original  utterance  some  of  these  names  remain,  even  after 
the  lapse  of  a  thousand  years. 

The  moors  along  this  elevated  watershed  between  Wharfe  and 
Xidd  have  been  occupied  as  I  have  already  proved  by  Briton  and 
Roman,  who  worked  the  local  lead  mines  more  than  1800  years  ago. 
Dr.  Whitaker  mentions  having  in  his  possession  (about  a  century 
ago),  a  brass  (bronze)?  celt  found  on  Grassington  Moor.  Within  the 
last  thirty  or  forty  years,  Grassington  was  little  known  but  as  a 
village  of  lead-miners,  the  mines  being  scattered  along  the  hills 
for  a  distance  of  about  three  miles.  Whitaker,  as  well  as  those  who 
have  copied  him,  mention  that  there  are  no  evidences  of  the  working 
of  these  mines  before  the  reign  of  James  I.  I  may  however  state  that 
lead  in  considerable  quantities  was  obtained  from  the  Greenhow 
mines  shortly  after  the  grant  to  Sir  Richard  Gresham  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII.  They  were  first  drained  by  a  day-level  commenced  in 
1796  and  completed  in  1830  at  a  cost  of  ^30,000.  For  twenty  or 
thirty  years  subsequently  they  were  worked  very  profitably,  but  owing 
to  the  lack  of  railway  conveniences  and  to  the  competitive  importation 
of  foreign  lead,  most  of  the  Yorkshire  mines  have  had  to  be  closed.* 
Half  a  century  ago,  however,  when  the  Grassington  mines  were  in  full 
work,  they  produced  from  700  to  1,000  tons  of  refined  lead  annually, 
besides  some  amount  of  calomel.  Evidences  of  these  old  lead- 
workings  are  still  apparent  on  various  parts  of  the  moors.  The 
mining  rights,  I  may  add,  belong  to  the  Duke  of  Devonshire. 

The  highroad  from  Grassington  to  Pateley  Bridge  runs  through 
the  village  of  Greenhow  Hill  (1,317  feet)  by  the  famous  Stump  Cross 
caverns  and  the  old  Moorcock  inn.  The  little  church  of  St.  Mary  (a 
chapel-of-ease  to  Pateley  Bridge)  is  believed  to  be  the  highest  church 
(1,280  feet)  in  Yorkshire.  Harwood  Church,  on  the  Durham  side  of 
the  Tees,  is  probably  the  highest  situated  church  in  England,  while  the 
highest  village  is  probably  Colecleugh  (1,725  feet)  in  Northumberland. 

The  hill  at  Greenhow  consists  of  a  great  mass  of  scar  limestone 
over  a  hundred  fathoms  thick,  enclosed  by  shales  and  grit,  which 
have  been  penetrated  in  order  to  carry  the  pipes  from  the  new  water 
supply  in  Upper  Nidderdale  to  the  city  of  Bradford.  The  tunnel  is 
6,204  yards  long  and  has  bten  driven  from  three  shafts,  one  of  them 
being  420  feet  deep.  For  several  years  some  millions  of  gallons  of 
water  per  day  had  to  be  pumped  from  these  shafts,  so  copious  being 
the  outflow  that  measures  of  this  kind  were  necessary  and  required 
constant  vigilance  in  order  to  prevent  flooding  and  consequent 
submergence  of  the  machinery.  The  difficulties,  however,  have  been 
very  skilfully  managed,  the  water  having  been  carried  under  the 

*  See  the  author's  Romantic  Richmondshire,  pages  240,  &c. . 


invert  bv  pipes  from  eighteen  inches  to  twenty-one  inches  in  diameter, 
and  conveyed  to  the  north  and  south  ends  of  the  tunnel.  Tlv 
is  traversed  by  VLMH.S  of  lead  ore,  and  formerly  when  the  Sunside 
Mining  Company  had  a  lease  of  the  land  there  were  extensive 
smelting-works  at  Cockhill,  and  almost  the  whole  population  was 
i  oinposed  of  native  and  Cornish  miners. 

The  s<  enerj  nmnd  about  Greenhow  Hill  is  very  wild  and  grand, 
anil  the  walk  or  drive  to  or  from  Grasxington,  in  spite  of  the  long 
ascent  on  the  1'atelev  Bridge  side  of  the  hill,  cannot  fail  in  tine 
weather  to  be  greatly  enjoyed.  Many  of  my  readers  are  no  doubt 
familiar  with  Mr.  Rudyard  Kipling's  story,  On  Greenhow  Hill,  a 
story  that,  does  not  particularly  flatter  the  hard-working  Methodist 
body,  yet  it  is  full  of  Mr.  Kipling's  racy  humour.  Its  famous  author 
is  not  unacquainted  with  the  road  I  am  describing,  and  his  family 
connections  with  this  neighbourhood  are  locally  very  well  known. 
His  grandfather,  the  Rev.  Joseph  Kipling,  was  a  Wesleyan  minister 
in  the  Skipton  Circuit,  and  he  was  also  stationed  some  time  at 
Pateley  Bridge.  His  wife,  the  novelist's  grandmother,  says  Mr. 
Kdmund  Lee,  of  Bradford,  was  "  one  of  the  sweetest  women  that  ever 
lived  ; "  and  the  happy  couple,  so  long  as  they  remained  in  Craven, 
had  the  greatest  respect  of  all  who  knew  them. 

Greenhow  has  in  all  likelihood  been  green  and  cultivated  land 
since  Celtic  times.  The  name  is  doubtless  derived  from  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  girtic  (green)  hew  (hill).  These  "  hows  "  were  in  pre-Conquest 
times,  and  even  later,  frequently  the  places  of  assembly  of  the  town 
or  district  gcinot.  Claro,  or  Clare  How,  which  I  mentioned  on  page 
43,  was  the  moot-hill  of  its  wapentake  ,  similarly  Leicestershire  has 
Sparkinho,  and  Norfolk  its  Greenho  and  Grimshoe.  There  is  also  a 
Greenhow  in  Cleveland.  There  is  also,  by  the  way  a  "  Greenahill '' 
near  Wortley,  in  Leeds  parish,  an  old  beacon-signal,  used  in  the 
time  of  the  threatened  invasion  of  Napoleon  at  the  end  of  the 
iSth  century. 


CHAPTER    XXXIX. 


ROMANTIC    HKIIDKN. 

Picturesque  aspects      Name  ut    Hebden      Thor's   \\'cll      Manorial   history  -'J'hc    family 
nt    Hebden      Roman    Catholicism    in    Upper    \Vharfedale     A    Hebdeu    recussanl 
I  .oral  improvements  -Former  appearance  of  the  village     An  ancient  drying-kiln 
'I'lic  old  manor-house     Old  natives     Anecdote     Some  old  homesteads     The  church 
Romantic  scenerv      Ancient  field-names. 

ESIDE  the  little  mountain  torrent  that  sometimes  sweeps 

with  relentless  fury  from  the  high  fells  it  traverses, 
stands  the  romantic  village  of  Hebden.  A  delightfully- 
situated  little  spot  it  is,  and  to  those  who  are  in  need 
of  a  quiet,  restful  holiday,  few  places  in  our  dales  can 
vie  with  it  in  the  charm  of  its  thorough  isolation  and  rusticity.  The 
village  however,  is  only  some  two  or  three  miles  from  Linton  and 
Burnsall,  and  a  short  two  miles  by  a  good  road  from  Grassington. 
No  doubt  the  place  derives  its  name  from  the  A.-S.  hebban,  to  raise, 
to  elevate,  in  consequence  of  the  elevated  situation  of  the  little  dene 
or  valley  in  which  it  reposes.*  In  Domesday  it  is  written  Hebedene, 
and  although  nearer  to  Burnsall  than  it  is  to  Linton,  it  has  from  the 
time  of  the  Norman  Conquest  always  been,  together  with  the 
contiguous  township  of  Grassington,  parcel  of  the  parish  of  Linton. 

Celt,  Saxon,  Dane,  and  Roman  have  all  had  a  hand  in  the 
making  of  Hebden.  Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the  so-called 
Thor's  Well,  near  Hebden,  which  may  be  a  form  of  Thora  (see  page 
388)  of  the  old  Norse  sagas,f  or  it  may  be  a  relic  of  Thor  worship 
in  Wharfedale.  Wells  retaining  their  pagan  dedications  are  however 
extremely  rare.  Stories  of  the  old  Thunder-god  survive  in  many  an 
English  fiction,  such  for  example  as  Jack  the  Giant  Killer:  while 
legends  of  Christian  saints,  as  St.  Peter,  may  be  traced  to  the  worship 
of  the  same  Norse  Thor.  At  Guisborough  in  Yorkshire,  for  example, 
the  fishermen  on  St.  Peter's  Day,  dressed  their  boats  and  masts  and 
sprinkled  their  bows  with  a  good  liquor,  a  custom  no  doubt  proceeding 
from  the  old  Viking  habit  of  smearing  their  war-ships  with  human 

*  There  are  many  words  in  common  use  in  the  dales  which  are  not  understood  by 
South  country  people,  beinjf  the  survivals  of  names  that  would  have  been  perfectly 
intellig-eable  to  our  Aniflo-Saxoii  or  Danish  forefathers.  Hut  a  singular  exception  to  the 
prevalence  ot  Anglo-Saxon  diction  obtained  at  Hebden  until  quite  recent  times, 
inasmuch  as  even  yet  an  old  native  of  Hebden  has  difficulty  in  uttering  the  ///.  which 
is  peculiar  to  the  Saxon  tongue.  Instead  of  pronouncing  the  words  this,  them,  through, 
thrush,  thunder,  &c.,  he  will  say  dis,  dem,  fmi/^/i,  fntsh,  fmnier,  &c. 

t  There  is  a  Thora  Gill  on  Fountains  Fell.  .SVr  the  author's  Craven  //i«-/iftinds, 
pagfe  359. 


454 

blood  before  setting  out  on  an  expedition,  by  way  of  offering  to  the 
god  of  war  and  victory.  By  the  way,  I  have  not  learnt  what  was 
the  motive  for  the  dedication  of  the  church  at  Hebden  to  St.  Peter. 

Before  the  Conquest  the  manor  had  been  held  by  the  Saxon 
Dringel  who  was  permitted  to  continue  as  mesne  lord  of  the  Arches 
family,  to  whom  this  manor  was  conveyed  by  the  Conqueror. 
Shortly  afterwards  it  became  merged  in  the  fee  of  Mowbray,  whose 
possessions  extended  over  a  great  part  of  the  adjoining  lands  of 
Upper  Nidderdale.  Whitaker  cites  a  charter  to  which  he  attaches 
the  date  about  A.D.  1120,  whereby  the  manor  of  Hebden  was  granted 
by  Roger  de  Mowbray  to  Uchtred  fitz  Dolphin  and  his  heirs,  the 
bounds  whereof  are  described  as  extending  from  Eskedensike  as  far 
as  Loutandstan  and  Stanwath,  and  Brokeshougill  as  far  as  Bradden- 
ford  in  Gatehopbec  near  to  the  Holme-keld  &r.  He  says  that  the 
grantee  was  son  of  a  Gospatric  de  Rigton  in  Knaresbro'  Forest,  but 
no  authority  is  given  for  this  statement.  Air.  Ellis  is  of  opinion  that 
this  is  a  mistake.  Uchtred  was  son  of  Dolphin  son  of  Gospatric, 
whom  Simeon  of  Durham  says  married  a  daughter  of  Dolphin,  son 
of  Thorfin,*  and  the  pedigree  given  in  the  Thoresby  Society's 
publications,  gives  this  Dolphin  three  sons,  Torphin,  Swayn  and 
Ughtred,  but  Mr.  Ellis  thinks  that  Ughtred  was  second  not  third  son 
of  Dolphin,  and  the  ancestor  of  the  De  Hebdens  to  whom  Mowbray 
gave  the  manor  of  Hebden  after  1166,  and  not  about  1120. 

These  Hebdens  were  people  of  position  and  held  the  manor  of 
Hebden  for  a  long  period,  until  by  division  of  the  estates  already 
explained  in  the  account  of  Burnsall,  the  property  changed  hands. 
Descendants  of  the  family  held  lands  under  Fountains  Abbey,  one  of 
whom  John  Hebden  had  a  house  with  certain  lands,  &c.,  of  the 
monks  at  Caldstanfald  in  the  parish  of  Ripon,  for  which  he  paid  at 
the  Dissolution  26s.  8d.  yearly  rent.  According  to  the  King's 
Commissioners'  Certificate  of  the  value  of  the  properties  belonging  to 
this  monastery  in  1535,  their  possessions  in  Hebden  were  worth 
yearly  8s.  Anciently  there  was  a  good  deal  of  corn  grown  in  the 
neighbourhood,  where  now  all  is  moor  and  pasture.  In  the  131)1 
century  the  monks  obtained  from  Simon  de  Hebden  a  grant  of  free 
passage  over  all  his  land  here,  except  corn  and  meadow,  as  well  for 
sheep,  cattle  and  carriages,  in  going  or  returning  from  their  great 
annual  shearing  at  Kilnsey. 

Fifty  years  after  the  monasteries  were  dissolved  there  were  not 
many  who  stuck  to  the  old  faith  in  Upper  Wharfedale.  In  1604 
there  are  a  few  returned  for  Burnsall,  but  after  the  close  of  the  Civil 
War  Roman  Catholicism,  in  name  at  least,  seems  to  have  been  almost 
completely  obliterated.  Repressive  measures  had  been  taken  from 
time  to  time  ever  since  the  Reformation,  and  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II. 

*  See  the  author's  Old  Bingley,  page  74. 


455 

further  suspicions  were  aroused  of  Romanist  disloyalty  which  led 
in  \(>'}S  to  a  proclamation  being  issued  commanding  local  Justices  to 
order  the  pettv  constables  to  apprehend  the  bodies  of  all  and  any 
such  recussants  and  to  make  search  in  such  houses  as  were  reputed 
to  be  occupied  by  them.  They  were-  also  to  bring  the  bodies  of  such 
recussants  before  the  nearest  J.I',  to  lind  sureties  tor  good  behaviour. 
But  the  only  person  I  can  find  in  Upper  \Vharfedale  at  this  time  who 
declared  himself  a  Popish  recussant  was  Francis  Ward  of  Hebden, 
although  there  were  a  number  of  other  Catholic  families  at  Ingleton, 
Rathmell,  Skipton  and  Hroughton.  In  1691  it  was  ordered  that  the 
houses  of  Popish  owners  above  the  value  of  ^5  should  be  sold  and 
that  all  fire-arms,  dirks,  swords,  &c.,  be  taken  from  them  and  used  in 
his  Majesty's  service.  Again  the  Jacobite  rising  in  1715  led  to  a 
searching  enquiry  into  the  location  and  value  of  all  Catholic  property. 
Yorkshire  in  this  return  heads  the  list  in  possessing  a  larger  amount 
of  landed  property  held  by  Roman  Catholics  than  any  other  county 
in  the  kingdom.  The  total  annual  income  is  about  ^50,000,  of 
which  nearly  ^20,000  is  returned  for  the  West  Riding.  Many 
Craven  yeomen  appear  in  these  returns. 

The  land  about  Hebden  is  now  held  by  various  owners,  but 
principally  by  the  trustees  of  the  late  Rev.  Canon  Chamberlain,  M.A., 
who  was  vicar  of  Limber  Magna,  Lincolnshire. 

Great  improvements  have  taken  place  in  the  general  aspects  of 
the  village  during  the  past  fifty  years.  Few  can  remember  now  the 
old  tottering  bridge  in  the  Beck  bottom,  which  was  removed  when 
the  present  county  bridge  was  put  up  and  the  road  raised.  Old 
inhabitants  tell  me  that  when  Mr.  Bramley  ran  the  cotton  mill  some 
sixty  years  ago,  the  moorlands  were  then  unenclosed,  and  Hebden  at 
that  time  was  a  very  primitive  looking  place.  There  was  only  one 
"Bethel,"  several  old  unplastered  cottages,  with  thatched  roofs  and 
rough  cobble  walls,  besides  a  couple  of  inns,  while  the  ancient  school- 
house  on  the  village  green,  looked  more  like  a  common  mistal  than 
a  place  of  intellectual  light.  Xo  one  knows  when  the  old  building 
was  erected,  but  the  age  of  its  mossy  outer  walls  probably  harked 
back  to  the  Reformation,  and  before  the  days  when  chimm-vs  were 
in  general  use.  The  well-seasoned  oaken  rafters  were  as  black  with 
smoke  as  the  most  remote  Highland  cottar's  shieling  at  the  present 
day.  When  the  building  was  pulled  down  to  make  way  for  the 
present  neat  school,  some  rude  and  evidently  very  old  fire-places 
were  discovered.  They  were  of  such  a  character  as  to  leave  no 
doubt  that  they  had  served  in  the  ancient  manor  drying-kiln  for 
parching  the  grain  of  the  whole  township  preparatory  to  its  being 
ground.  The  last  surviving  link  in  fact  connecting  our  time  and 
people  with  those  of  the  original  Anglo-Saxon  settlers,  who  lived  and 
dwelled  in  common,  united  in  food,  worship,  and  estate. 

The  ancient  manor-house  of  the  Hebdens,  which  had  stood  on 


456 

the  site  from  the  Norman  Conquest,  was  pulled  down  early  this 
century.  The  farm  house  called  Hebden  Hall  has  taken  its  place, 
and  has  been  the  home  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  James  Metcalfe  for  more 
than  half-a-century.  This  aged  couple  it  may  be  noted  celebrated 
their  "diamond  wedding"  in  September  last  year,  and  though  they 
themselves  boast  no  pride  of  heritage,  yet  Mrs.  Metcalfe  modestly 
claims  that  her  aunt  Elizabeth  Hammond  was  housekeeper  to  King 
William  and  Queen  Adelaide  at  Windsor  Castle,  now  about  eighty 
years  ago.  And  some  are  still  proud  at  Hebden  of  this  local 
connection  in  the  service  of  a  former  sovereign  of  Old  England  ! 

Many  a  story  of  worth  and  valour  and  of  "  fortunes  made  in 
business"  might  be  recounted  of  bygone  Hebdenites  did  space  permit. 
Of  old  "characters,"  too,  and  past  events  which  make  up  the  life 
of  a  village  in  the  olden  time,  much  might  be  written.  There  are 
few  now,  for  instance,  who  will  remember  old  Henry  Baines,  a  staunch 
Wesleyan  or  Primitive,  I  forget  which.  Poor  old  Henry,  he  had  to 
seek  relief  in  the  end  from  the  Parish  authorities,  and  when  they 
came  to  arrange  the  allowance,  he  wagged  his  tongue  loud  and  long 
in  support  of  his  contention  that  he  had  kept  off  parish  relief  "till  he 
wor  ommost  ready  to  dea!"  They  asked  him  to  sign  his  name  in  the 
book  provided  for  the  purpose.  "Nay"  he  says,  "I  nivver  put  my 
neeam  o'  paper  in  all  my  deeas."  "Well  then,"  came  the  request, 
"you  must  make  a  cross,  Henry."  "A  cross,"  ejaculated  the  old 
man,  "  Aw'll  noan  turn  Roman  Catholic  fur  all  t'brass  i;t  wurrld.  Aw'll 
dea  furst ! " 

Looking  at  the  place  now  in  its  outward  appearance  there  is  not 
much  remaining  to  bespeak  the  antiquity  of  the  little  upland  village. 
Well-built  houses  and  shops,  a  church,  school,  Wesleyan  chapel,  and 
good  inn,  have  usurped  the  generally  pre-Reformation  aspect  the 
place  so  lately  wore.  There  are  however,  one  or  two  tolerably 
ancient  domiciles  still  standing  which  carry  our  thoughts  back  to  the 
time  when  the  Stuarts  were  monarchs  of  our  realm.  One  of  these 
stands  to  the  east  of  the  church  and  has  a  blocked  doorway  inscribed 
"R.  A.  R.,  1674,  DEVS  ET  MEVS;"  the  latter  part  of  the  inscription 
being  an  evident  attempt  to  Latinize  the  Scriptural  phrase,  "God 
even  my  God."  The  house  was  an  old  home  of  the  Rathmell  family, 
or  Ra'mell  as  locally  pronounced,  and  was  built  by  Robert  Rathmell 
and  his  wife  Agnes,  whose  names  I  find  among  the  Yorkshire 
recussants  in  1665-6.  The  house  is  now  the  property,  by  inheritance, 
of  Dr.  Bailey  of  Canterbury. 

The  church  (St.  Peter's)  was  erected  sixty  years  ago  and  is  a  neat 
structure  in  the  Early  English  style.  It  includes  a  nave,  chancel,  and 
west  tower  with  one  bell,  and  pleasant  is  the  sound  of  it  on  bright 
Sabbath  days,  when  the  single  peal  is  heard  perchance  a  long  way  off 
among  the  brown  moors  and  distant  farms,  calling  the  dalesfolk  to 
worship  their  Lord,  the  Giver  and  Maker  of  all ! 


458 

The  romantic  surroundings  of  Hebden  provide  unending  interest, 
whether  we  climb  up  to  the  high  moors  for  the  sake  of  the  wide  views, 
or  study  the  rocks  and  faults,  or  content  ourselves  with  the  placid 
instruction  of  the  botanical  wonders  of  the  district,  and  they  are  not  a 
few,*  or  we  may  scramble  as  far  as  the  picturesque  Scala  Gill  waterfall, 
a  name  again  that  suggests  old  Norse  homesteads  in  the  vicinity, 
before  the  Norman  William  "wasted"  the  rich  meadows  of  our  dales. 
The  walk  along  the  water  side  as  far  as  Hebden  Mill  is  also  very 
enjoyable,  and  here  you  may  cross  the  river  by  the  new  suspension 
bridge,  which  gives  quite  a  feature  to  the  scenery  at  this  point. 
Thence  you  may  reach  Burnsall,  passing  the  picturesque  Loup  Scar 
and  the  ancient  holy-wells  previously  described. 

The  Anglo-Celts  were  the  strongest  element  here,  doubtless  even 
long  after  the  Conquest.  Story,  tradition,  and  place-name  help  to 
confirm  this.  I  may  mention  for  example,  the  little  mountain-beck 
which  flows  through  Hebden  and  in  one  part  of  its  course  traverses  a 
low-lying  pasture  called  Nows  Field,  a  curious  name,  and  one  very  rarely 
met  with,  but  there  is  little  doubt  that  its  root  is  to  be  found  in  the 
A.S.  niwe,  a  piece  of  flat  or  low  land  subject  to  submergence.  The 
old  French  form  is  uoe,  noue,  and  occurs  in  Les  Noues,  Neuilly,  and 
in  the  Latin  as  Noesiacum.  The  German  nass,  wet,  may  be  traced  to 
it.  There  is  a  Hell  Beck  at  Grassington,  a  Hell  Hole  near  Trailer's 
Gill  (see  page  384)  and  a  Hell  Field  high  above  the  eastern  bank  of 
Hebden  Beck,  but  whether  these  places  have  any  association  with  his 
Satanic  Majesty,  I  cannot  say.  At  Tunstall,  in  Norfolk,  there  is  a 
pool  called  Hell  Hole  which  the  natives  believe  to  be  connected  with 
the  "bottomless  pit."  But  hell  in  Anglo-Saxon  may  signify  simply 
"a  grave  or  tomb;"  while  helle  according  to  Mr.  Kemble's  Glossary 
to  the  Anglo-Saxon  poems  on  Beowulf,  the  first  English  epic,  means 
clear  high,  or  eminent.  There  is  also  at  Hebden  a  Sill  Field,  which 
may  be  the  Cymric  Celtic  till,  Latin  cella,  a  cell,  a  burying-ground, 
or  church ;  in  Celtic  topography,  Kil  or  Kel,  as  Kilbride  the  cell  or 
church  of  St.  Bridget.  No  one  seems  to  know  how  the  name 
originated,  and  it  may  be  merely  an  abbreviation  of  the  personal 
name  Sylvester.  I  may,  however,  add  that  in  Bradford  there  was  a 
very  old  bridge  at  one  of  the  exits  of  the  town,  called  Sillbridge, 
which  in  ancient  deeds  appears  as  Syllbrigge.  Wogan  is  also  the 
name  of  a  field  at  High  Garnshaw,  and  this  may  be  a  corrupt  form 
of  the  old  family  name  of  Wigan.  But  wbgan  in  Anglo-Saxon  means 
to  woo  or  marry,  and  the  spot  may  possibly  have  been  a  place 
appointed  for  the  celebration  of  marriages  even  in  the  far-off  days  of 
the  Anglo-Saxons. 


*  Mr.  W.  M.  Rankin  B.Sc.  informs  me  that  he  has  lately  found  here  the  very  rare 
Alpine  pennycress  (Thlaspi  alpestri  var.  occitanum)  which  has  been  found  at  one  or  two 
places  in  Craven  and  near  Llanwrst  in  Wales, 


CHAPTER    XL. 


ROUND   ABOUT   CONISTON. 

Romantic  scenery  — Cliaprl  House  -A  grang-e  and  chapel  of  Fountains  Abbey — The 
Tennant  family— The  village  of  Coniston — Meaning-  of  Coniston — Antiquity  of  the 
church  Its  present  aspects  Old  houses — Prehistoric  evidences — Discoveries  in 
Coniston  Pastures  Local  hill-names. 

E  are  now  in  a,  thoroughly  romantic  part  of  Wharfedale, 
where  the  hills  bounding  the  valley  rise  into  miniature 
mountains,  and  the  great  grey  limestone  scars  so 
characteristic  of  Craven,  come  prominently  into  view. 
Walking  or  driving  "  up  dale  "  from  Grassington,  our 
road  runs  through  the  beautiful  Grass  Woods,  upon  emerging  from 
which  we  get  a  grand  expansive  view  of  the  dale,  with  the  historic 
Chapel  House  away  to  the  west. 

This  is  an  old  home  and  property  of  the  Tennant  family,  which 
had  belonged  to  Fountains  Abbey  and  was  purchased  by  John 
Tennant  (not  Jeffery  Tennant,  as  stated  by  Whitaker),  of  Bordley, 
on  Malham  Moor,  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  The  monks 
had  a  small  cell  or  chapel  here,  and  a  grange  with  lands  which  they 
let  to  farm.  At  the  Dissolution  they  were  in  the  holding  of  Cisseil 
Layland,  and  included  "  lands,  meadows,  pastures,  commons  and 
wastes,"  paying  a  yearly  rental  of  £4.  35.  4d.  The  property  was 
acquired  by  the  Yorke  family,  lords  of  the  Forest  of  Nidderdale  and 
of  the  manor  of  Appletrewick  in  the  ancient  parish  of  Burnsall,  in 
which  Chapel  House  is  also  situated.  By  deed  dated  29th  March, 
1572,  Chapel  House,  and  the  appurtenant  property  was  sold  to  John 
Tennant,  then  living  there,  by  Peter  Yorke  and  Dame  Anne,  his 
wife.  The  pedigrees  it  may  be  noted  name  the  wife  of  Peter  Yorke, 
as  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Sir  Wm.  Ingleby,  of  Ripley  Castle,  Kt.  by 
whom  he  left  a  family  of  four  sons.  The  second  son,  Thomas 
Yorke,  was  living  at  Percival  Hall,  near  Appletrewick,  early  in  the 
1 7th  century,  a  fact  I  omitted  to  notice  in  the  account  of  that  old 
mansion. 

Both  the  Tennants  and  Leylands  had  been  in  the  service  of 
Fountains  Abbey  from  an  early  period  and  their  names  are  also 
plentiful  in  the  local  poll-tax  lists  for  1378.  In  an  unpublished 
document  at  the  Record  Office,  dated  8th  James  I.  (1610),  I  find 
the  name  of  Richard  Tennant  of  Kettlewell  in  Craven,  who  surrenders 
to  the  King  two  messuages  and  lands  in  Cold  Coniston,  let  at  yearly 
rentals  of  22S.  8d.  and  155.  nfd.  respectively,  parcel  of  the  lordship 
of  Middleham  within  the  Archdeaconry  of  Richmond.  A  Richard 


460 

Tennant  was  instituted  vicar  of  Kettlewell  in  1632,  and  the  name  of 
Richard  Tennant  also  appears  as  rector  of  a  mediety  of  the  church 
of  Burnsall  in  1618.  He  died  in  1653.  In  Hey  wood's  Register  (1644- 
1702),  there  is  an  entry  of  a  Mr.  Gleadston,  lecturer  at  Bradford, 
"  married  old  Mr.  Tennant's  daughter  of  Burnsay  in  Craven,  Dec. 
7th,  1681.''  Descendants  of  this  old  Craven  family  are  still  resident 
in  Upper  Wharfedale.  The  annexed  pedigree,  not  before  published, 
shews  the  descent  to  the  present  time  of  the  Tennants,  of  Chapel 
House,  from  John  Tennant  of  Bordley,  who  was  living  in  1584,  or 
four  years  before  the  fires  on  the  neighbouring  peak  of  Sharpha, 
near  Rilston,  signalled  the  coming  of  the  Armada. 


CHAPEL    HOUSE,  KILNSEY. 

Generation  after  generation  of  this  family  continued  at  Chapel 
House  until  John  Tennant  of  the  Middle  Temple,  who  died 
childless  in  1790,  devised  the  estate  to  his  brother  Robert,  of  Chapel 
House,  who  also  died  without  issue  in  1794,  when  the  family  for 
some  time  ceased  to  reside  there.  On  the  death  of  Robert  Tennant 
the  estate  was  devised  to  his  great-nephew,  John  Tennant  Stansfield, 
son  of  Jonathan  Stansfield,  of  Idle,  Co.  York,  on  condition  that  he 
took  the  name  and  arms  of  Tennant.  This  John  Tennant  Stansfield 
Tennant,  who  was  born  in  1790,  married  (i)  his  kinswoman,  Rebecca 
Wilson,  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Henry  Wilson,  vicar  of  Otley,  (see 
page  69),  and  (2)  Anne  Catherine,  daughter  of  James  Shaw,  of 


461 

Otlev.  He  'lied  in  1830.  He  was  a  captain  in  the  3rd  West  York 
Militia  and  a  J.P.  of  the  West  Riding.  He  was  succeeded  by  his 
son  John  Robert  Tennant,  of  Chapel  House,  who  on  his  leaving 
Oxford  followed  in  his  father's  footsteps  and  became  Captain  of  the 
3rd  West  York  Militia,  as  well  as  J.P.  and  D.L.  of  the  West  Riding. 
He  died  in  1894  when  the  estate  passed  to  his*  brother  Robert,  (issue 
of  the  second  marriage)  who  died  in  the  Spring  of  1900,  and  of 
whom  some  account  will  be  found  on  pages  86-7.  Mr.  Robert 
Tennant  was  M.I',  for  Leeds.  1X74-1880,  and  he  had  also  been  a 
Captain  in  the  Yorkshire  Hussars.  His  eldest  son,  John  Robert 
Tennant,  who  was  horn  in  1851,  was  Captain  in  the  2nd  West  York 
Militia,  and  married  Eleanor  Ann,  daughter  of  Col.  Rolleston,  of 
Watnall  Hall,  who  was  some  time  M.P.  for  Co.  Notts.  Many  of  the 
Tennants  are  buried  in  the  ancient  kirk-garth  at  Collision,  on  the 
opposite  bank  of  Wharfe  to  Chapel  House. 

The  house  is  a  large  plain  stone  structure  erected  shortly  before 
the  death  of  Mr.  John  Tennant  in  1790.  It  is  surrounded  by  pleasant 
grounds,  commanding  a  charming  view  of  the  valley.  The  present 
tenant  is  Mr.  George  E.  Clayton,  of  the  old  family  of  Clayton  of 
Langcliff,  near  Settle. 

Proceeding  along  the  country  road  we  soon  reach  the  ancient 
and  delightful  little  village  of  Coniston,  wilh  its  May  Pole  reared 
high  upon  the  open  green.  The  village,  "far-famed  for  Whangby 
cheese  and  bread,''  as  writes  John  Broughton  seventy  years  ago, 
is  mentioned  in  Domesday  (A.D.  1085-6)  and  is  there  spelled 
"Cunestune,"  which  Whitaker  and  all  his  followers  have  corrupted 
into  "Conyngslun,"  ihus  making  il  appear  lhat  this  was  either  the 
seat  of  a  prince  or  thai  it  had  "been  part  of  the  demesnes  of  the 
Crown  in  Saxon  times."  To  accept,  however,  the  Domesday  spelling, 
and  the  local  pronunciation  (Cunniston)  ihe  name  obviously  signifies 
nothing  more  than  that  the  place  was  a  cow-pasture  or  enclosure 
where  the  catlle  of  the  old  Anglian  settlers  were  kept.  Cuna  is  the 
genitive  of  the  A.-S.  en  (cow)  thus  Cunestune  is  literally  the  town  of 
cows.  The  tun  meant  originally  a  place  enclosed  or  protecled  wilh 
stakes,  and  was  applied  lo  single  farm-sleadings  and  manors,  in 
which  sense  tun  is  slill  used  in  Iceland  and  toon  in  Scotland.* 

The  township  has  always  been  an  appanage  of  the  parish  of 
Burnsall  and  its  ancient  little  church  continued  subservient  to  the 
mother  church  of  Burnsall  until  1876,  when  it  was  constituted  a 
chapel-of-ease  to  the  then  formed  ecclesiastical  parish  of  Rilston. 
The  services  since  that  time  have  been  taken  by  the  rectors  of 
Rilston,  the  present  popular  rector  being  the  Rev.  Chas.  Henry 
Lowe,  M.A. 

The  church   (St.    Mary's)   is  a  very  ancient  structure,  in  a  rude 

Si-t-  Klaekk-'s  Place  \HHICX,  page  193. 


462 

Norman  style,  and  was  restored  in  keeping  with  the  character  of  the 
fabric  about  fifty  years  ago.  In  a  neighbourhood  so  eminently  Celtic 
as  that  of  Grassington,  one  naturally  turns  for  any  evidence  of  Celtic 
influence  in  a  building  of  the  antiquity  that  this  is  shewn  to  be. 
The  Scottic  church,  as  I  have  before  pointed  out,  remained  a  power 
in  Wharfedale  long  after  the  adoption  of  the  canons  of  the  Romish 
Church  in  the  seventh  century,  nor  did  its  influence  die  out  until 
the  Normans  were  firmly  settled  in  the  land.  Some  interesting 
comparisons  might  be  made  between  the  original  design  of  the  fabric 
at  Coniston  and  the  church  I  have  described  at  Leathley,  for  I  have 
little  doubt  that  in  those  buildings  in  our  district  retaining  much  of 
their  early  character,  as  at  Leathley  and  Weston,  the  structural  basis 
of  them  is  Celtic.  Most  of  the  smaller  English  churches,  as  Mr. 
Micklethwaite  has  clearly  proved,  were  built  on  a  plan  which  is 
purely  Scottish,  all  through  the  Saxon  period  and  even  beyond  it. 

At  Coniston  it  should  be  noted  that  there  does  not  appear  ever 
to  have  been  a  chancel,  until  the  restoration  in  1846.  In  all 
probability  the  Norman  church  had  a  square  presbytery,  which  may 
have  been  pulled  down  after  it  had  been  suffered  to  become  ruinous, 
in  order  to  avoid  the  expense  of  keeping  it  in  repair,  as  not  infrequently 
happened,  especially  during  the  period  following  upon  the  Reformation. 
A  conspicuous  feature  in  the  church  at  Coniston  is  the  massive  square 
pier  having  simple  abaci  and  circular  arches,  (chamfered)  combined 
with  one  octagonal  pier  supporting  a  pointed  arch.  The  nave 
windows  are  deeply  splayed.  The  east  windows  are  of  modern 
stained  glass;  one  being  a  memorial  to  the  Tennant  family,  the  gift 
of  J.  R.  Tennant,  Esq.,  of  Kildwick  Hall  (1853),  and  another  placed 
to  the  memory  of  three  children  of  the  Rev.  Wm.  Bury,  of  Chapel 
House,  and  rector  of  Burnsall,  who  died  in  1875.  A  neat,  new 
pulpit  has  lately  been  added,  the  gift  of  Mrs.  Richard  Procter  and 
Mrs.  William  Procter,  in  memory  of  their  father  and  mother.  It  is  of 
unpolished  oak  with  carved  panels,  on  a  dark  red  stone  base.  The 
porch  in  the  Norman  style,  is  modern.  From  the  churchyard,  I  must 
not  forget  to  add,  there  is  a  lovely  view. 

Little  outside  the  church  remains  to  proclaim  the  antiquity  of 
the  village.  The  oldest  houses  do  not  date  any  further  back  than 
the  revival  of  building  after  the  disturbed  era  of  the  Civil  War.  The 
oldest  I  have  noted  bears  the  initials  and  date,  R.C.  1657.  Another 
is  inscribed,  I.T.  1697,  while  a  third  bears  the  date  1705.  There  are 
however  in  the  district  ample  evidences  of  human  occupation  far 
beyond  historic  times.  My  relative,  Mr.  Ernest  E.  Speight,  B.A., 
has  discovered  many  traces  of  prehistoric  burial  within  the  area 
known  as  Coniston  Pastures.  One  of  the  tumuli  he  opened  in  1892 
was  about  fifty  yards  in  circumference  and  some  two  or  three  feet 
high,  and  contained  the  skeleton  of  a  man  laid  on  its  left  side,  with 
the  legs  bent  up  towards  the  chin  in  the  usual  Celtic  fashion. 


463 

Along  with  the  body  was  an  iron  knife,  four  inches  in 
toother  with  an  iron  pin,  and  a  fragment  of  a  bone  handle  with  an 
iron  rivet.  In  the  same  barrow  there  was  a  small  burial-urn,  rudely 
marked  on  the  rim  with  a  zig-zag  ornament.  This  discovery  is  of 
particular  interest  as  combining  both  body-burial  and  evidences  of 
cremation,  the  ancient  Celts,  as  I  have  before  pointed  out,  being 
slow  to  adopt  the  Roman  idea  of  cremation. 

On  the  fell  side  to  the  north-east  of  Coniston  there  is  an  abrupt 
edge  called  Hill  Castle  Scar,  but  there  do  not  appear  to  be  any 
traditions  connected  with  the  place,  although  traces  of  primitive 
housesteads  are  abundant  on  these  high  lands.  Also  on  the  north 
side  of  Scot  Gate  Lane,  ascending  out  of  Coniston  eastwards,  is 
Wassa  Hill,  which  may  have  something  to  do  with  the  wet  nature  of 
the  surrounding  land,  the  Anglo-Saxon  waes,  meaning  water,  modern 
German  wasser.  High  above  towers  Coniston  Pie  (noo  feet)  and 
the  surrounding  scenery  is  very  wild  and  grand. 


CHAPTER     XLI. 


KILNSEY. 

Prehistoric  habitations— Dowkabottom  Cave— Discoveries  of  prehistoric  animal  and 
human  remains — Relics  of  prehistoric  spinning  and  weaving — Name  and  meaning 
of  Kilnsey — Local  possessions  of  Fountains  Abbey — Grange  destroyed  by  the 
Scots — Annual  sheep-shearing  at  Kilnsey — Rights  of  way  for  ox-wains  &c. — The 
old  Hall  and  the  Wade  family — Lady  Anne  Clifford  at  Kilnsey— Kilnsey  Crag — 
Local  inns— Kilnsey  Angling  Club. 

VERY  long  chapter  might  be  written  about  this 
wonderfully-interesting  locality,  especially  if  our 
discussions  embraced  every  detail  from  the  time  ot 
the  first  evidences  of  its  occupation.  P'or  on  the  wild 
moors  high  above  the  stupendous  cliff  which  shelters 
the  little  village  from  rude  blasts,  there  exist  traces  of  human 
dwellings  that  were  occupied  centuries  before  the  earliest  written 
record  of  the  spot.  They  lie  scattered  about  usually  in  the  most 
sheltered  places  on  the  moors,  and  a  very  good  collection  of  these 
antique  housesteads  may  be  seen  close  beside  the  old  British  trackway 
by  Skirethorns  to  Malham. 

Then  there  is  the  famous  bone-cave  called  Dowkabottom  on  the 
the  moor,  i^  miles  above  Kilnsey,  situated  at  an  elevation  of  1,280 
feet  above  the  sea.  The  place  for  a  long  time  has  been  a  large 
rabbit-warren  and  unless  the  keeper  can  be  seen,  it  is  rather  difficult  to 
find.  It  is  best  to  take  a  farm-lad  or  some  one  who  knows  the  way 
with  you  from  Kilnsey,  and  permission  should  be  obtained  at  the 
inn.  No  dogs  must  be  taken.  Formerly  the  cave  was  very  richly 
encrusted  with  natural  spar  and  there  were  some  exceedingly  fine 
stalactites  suspended  from  its  sides  and  roof,  which  formed  a  variety 
of  strange  and  beautiful  resemblances.  When  the  good  and 
far-travelled  Bishop  Pococke  visited  the  place  last  century  he  was 
enraptured  with  the  sight  and  described  the  cavern  as  "  Antiparos 
in  miniature,"  and  excepting  that  cave  he  added,  "  I  have  never 
seen  its  equal."  Year  by  year,  however,  numbers  of  people  visit 
the  spot,  and  this  grand  hall  of  natural  crystal  has  been  gradually 
shorn  of  its  ancient  splendour. 

Before  the  cave  was  first  explored  a  number  of  objects  had 
from  time  to  time  been  picked  up  in  the  vicinity,  including  a  bronze 
bracelet  of  Roman-Celtic  design.  The  finds  in  the  cave  itself, 
uncovered  from  beneath  a  thick  bed  of  ancient  stalagmite,  included 
the  complete  skeleton  of  a  red-deer  of  abnormal  size,  the  antlers 
being  large  and  well-preserved  ,  likewise  bones  of  wolf,  boar,  and 
primitive  dog.  There  was  also  found  part  of  a  horn  of  megaceros  or 


•tr'5 

Irish  deer,  an  animal  coexistent  with  the  rhinoceros  and  mammoth, 
hut  whether  it  can  be  said  to  have  actually  roamed  these  fells  in  a 
wild  state  or  that  the  horn  was  imported  liy  the  first  immigrants 
after  the  Ice  Age,  is  a  matter  of  uncertainty.  There  is  a  great 
probability  that  both  the  semi-tropical  rhinoceros  and  hippopotamus, 
whose  remains  are  found  in  our  dale  caverns,  survived  the  Ice  Age, 
and  that  they  moved  northwards  upon  the  retreat  of  the 
glaciers,  roaming  over  our  highlands  with  the  bison,  mammoth, 
and  hy;ena  down  even  perhaps  to  the  Brit-Welsh  occupation  of 
Strathclyde.  The  reindeer  we  know  long  survived  the  icy  terrors 
of  the  glacier-reign  in  Craven,  and  in  parts  of  Scotland  lived  on  to 
historic  times. 

The  Dowkabottom  cave,  like  the  old  bear-den  at  Elbolton  I 
have  described  was  also  a  burial-place  in  Celtic  times,  and  a  very 
interesting  discovery  was  made  in  it  of  this  age.  A  little  grave  had 
been  dug  out  of  the  stalagmite  by  the  loving  hands  of  some  old 
British  chief  or  chieftainess,  in  which  was  deposited  the  crouched-up 
skeleton  of  a  very  small  infant.  The  grave  was  not  more  than 
twelve  inches  in  length  and  not  so  much  in  width,  and  here  the  tiny 
creature  had  lain  for  nigh  two  thousand  years  until  the  curiosity  of 
modern  science  brought  it  to  observation. 

In  addition  to  these  interesting  discoveries  the  cave  yielded  an 
abundance  of  other  objects,  including  portions  of  skulls  of  two 
human  individuals,  several  bone  and  bronze  brooches,  bronze  pins, 
one  being  plated  with  silver,  portions  of  flint  implements  and  pottery, 
and  a  couple  of  excellent  spindle-whorls.  The  old  Britons  were  well 
acquainted  with  the  arts  of  spinning  and  weaving,  though  few  were 
clad  in  woven  garments  until  historic  times.  The  celebrated  ruler 
Boadicea  Queen  of  the  Iceni,  we  are  informed  in  the  last  encounters 
with  the  Romans,  wore  a  checked  costume  of  white  and  blue, 
doubtless  a  linen  fabric  with  a  mixed  white  and  woad-blue  warp, 
intersected  by  weft  of  the  same  hues  and  material.  But  woven 
fabrics  were  not  then  in  general  use,  the  bulk  of  the  people  wearing 
the  dressed  skins  of  animals  and  in  the  summer  season  they  went 
quite  naked.  A  few  years  ago  while  excavating  the  famous  Celtic 
lake-dwelling  at  (ilastonbury,  the  framework  of  a  prehistoric  loom 
was  discovered  along  with  brushwood  and  wattlework  forming  the 
foundation.  Still  further  evidence  of  the  antiquity  of  the  craft  in  this 
country  was  forthcoming  in  the  discovery  of  about  forty  horn  and 
bone  carding-combs,  most  of  them  in  excellent  preservation.  The 
age  of  these  relics  of  ancient  British  spinning  and  weaving  may  be 
approximately  fixed  between  the  years  A.I),  too  and  400.  Our 
Kilnsey  spindle-whorls  are  doubtless  of  a  similar  age,  as  amongst 
the  remains  were  found  several  bronze  coins  ranging  from  the  time 
of  Trajan  (A.D.  117)  to  Tacitus  (A.D.  275).  A  very  fine  Antoninus 
Pius  of  the  third  consulate  (A.U.  142),  was  also  found. 


466 

Descending  to  historic  times  we  observe  Kilnsey  spelled  in 
Domesday  Chileseie,  and  one  may  marvel  how  the  name  came  to  be 
written  in  the  present  manner,  with  'n'  intercalated.  Locally  the 
name  is  pronounced  "  Kilsey."  If  this  be  the  A.-S.  die,  cold  (the  '  c ' 
and  '  ch  '  of  Domesday  being  pronounced  as  '  k,')  coupled  with  the 
A.-S.  ed,  running-water,  a  stream,  it  is  surprising  how  the  majestic 
Crag,  which  forms  the  most  conspicuous  feature  about  Kilnsey, 
should  have  yielded  to  some  insignificant  cold  spring  or  stream  as  a 
means  to  define  and  identify  the  location  and  character  of  the  place. 
In  bestowing  names  of  places  the  ancients  were  guided  chiefly  by 
the  most  striking  object  the  place  possessed,  and  there  can  be  no 
hesitation  in  pointing  to  Kilnsey  Crag  as  the  paramount  feature  of 
this  place.  It  is  one  of  the  natural  wonders  of  Yorkshire.  Can 
this  prefix  'chil'  be  any  form  of  the  adjective  'high.'  Baines  in  the 
History  of  Lancashire  (1893  e^-  page  580)  suggests  that  chil-uestre-uic 
of  Domesday  means  High  Urswick,  and  Mr.  Finlayson,  of  Manchester, 
in  some  papers  contributed  to  the  Ulverston  Advertiser  in  1862, 
argues  strongly  for  this  latter  conjecture,  regarding  the  prefix  chil  as 
signifying  "  high  " ;  the  entire  word  implying  the  "  high  place  of  the 
bay  of  Urse:'*  There  appears,  however,  to  be  no  such  word  as  chil 
in  any  Teutonic  vocabulary  which  means  "  high."  The  suffix  in 
Chileseie  undoubtedly  means  water.  It  is  of  course,  as  I  have  before 
remarked,  inconsistent  with  the  principles  of  place-name  construction 
to  compound  a  British  adjective  with  an  Anglo-Saxon  substantive 
(or  vice  versa],  or  one  might  be  led  away  with  the  idea  that  in  the 
prefix  '  chil '  appears  the  Celtic  kil,  a  church  or  primitive  chapel. 

The  ancient  chapel  at  Chapel  House  was  no  doubt  serviceable 
when  the  bridge  was  broken  down  (a  common  occurrence  in  former 
times)f  and  the  river  too  swollen  to  admit  of  a  passage  between 
Kilnsey  and  the  old  church  at  Coniston.  On  the  occasions  too,  of 
the  great  annual  washing  and  shearing  of  sheep  at  Kilnsey,  belonging 
to  the  monks  of  Fountains,  the  chapel  here  would  be  resorted  to 
by  the  throng  of  people  in  the  service  of  the  Abbey,  who  were  lodged 
in  the  locality  during  these  important  gatherings.  The  monks  of 
Fountains  were  in  possession  of  their  Kilnsey  estate  before  the 
erection  of  Bolton  Priory  in  1154-5.  The  estate  consisted  of  about 
400  acres  of  land  given  to  them  by  William  Fitz  Duncan,  nephew  of 
David,  King  of  Scotland,  and  Adeliza  de  Rumelli,  his  wife.  Thurstin 
de  Arches  also  gave  the  monks  all  his  land  here,  lying  between 
Kilnsey  and  Arncliffe.  William,  son  of  Fulco  de  Threshfeld  likewise 
gave  to  them  the  whole  of  his  lands  from  the  head  of  the  culture 
called  Carlecroft,  as  specified  in  the  boundaries,  which  grant  was 
confirmed  by  Adam,  son  of  William  de  Threshfeld. 

*  See  also  North  Lonsdale  Mag.  Vol.  II.  p.  143. 

f  The  bridge  was  swept  down  by  the  great  flood  of  1674  (see  page  69)  when  it  was 
rebuilt  and  again  wrecked  some  ten  years  later. 


467 

It  would  appear  that  the  Grange  at  Kiinsey  was  erected  not 
vcrv  Ion-  a  ft  IT  the  earliest  grant  to  the  monastery  in  the  twelfth 
century,  as  William  de  Fortibus,  Earl  of  Albemarle  (who  died  in  i  195) 
gave  to  tin-  monks  forty  cart  loads  of  dead  wood  towards  the  erection 
of  the  house,  which  apparently  was  then  constructed  almost  entirely 
of  wood.  In  a  License  to  the  Abbot  and  Convent  of  Fountains  to 
convert  "certain  of  their  granges  ruined  by  the  Scots  (after 
Bannockburn)  into  vills  and  to  devise  them  to  secular  persons''*  the 
granges  of  Kilnsey,  Bradley  (near  Huddersfield)  and  Thorp  (near 
Ripon)  are  included.  This  was  the  initiation  of  that  policy  which 
arose  from  the  ashes  of  the  feudal  system,  of  letting  the  land  to 
respectable  tenants  whose  thriftiness  enabled  them  frequently  to 
become  purchasers  of  their  farms  after  the  dissolution  of  monasteries, 
and  to  the  inauguration  of  that  independent  middle-class  which 
ultimately  proved  to  be  the  strength  and  sinew  of  the  State.  When 
the  Abbey  of  Fountains  was  dissolved,  a  very  large  part  of  its 
possessions  was  granted  32nd  Henry  VIII.  (1540)  to  Sir  Richard 
Gresham,  of  London,  Kt.  These  included  all  the  monks'  lands, 
messuages,  mills,  woods,  rents,  services,  privileges  and  hereditaments 
&c.  in  Kilnsey,  Bordley,  Fountains  Fell,  Greenfell  Cosh  Moors, 
Halton  Gill  Moors,  Foxhope,  Heselden,  and  Litton  Moors,  besides 
immense  tracts  in  Upper  Nidderdale  and  Ribblesdale  &c.  The 
territory  belonging  to  this  wealthy  monastery  was  of  vast  extent, 
reaching  from  the  Abbey  westwards  to  Malham  Moors  and  the  head 
of  Wharfedale,  a  distance,  in  a  direct  line,  of  nearly  thirty  mil 

Like  Mesha,  King  of  Moab,  the  old  monks  were  great  sheep- 
masters,  whose  speciality  was  wool-growing,  and  their  wool  grown  on 
the  Yorkshire  fells  was  the  best  and  finest  in  Europe,  and  was  eagerly 
purchased  by  merchants  on  the  Continent.  The  sight  of  the  great 
annual  sheep-washing  at  Kilnsey,  must  have  been  like  the 
annual  corn-mowing  at  Bolton  (see  page  301)  one  of  the -busiest,  most 
important,  and  most  picturesque  events  of  the  time  in  Yorkshire.  In 
the  famous  dispute  with  Master  Richard  Tempest  in  1579  about  the 
tithe  of  wool  accruing  from  lands  on  Malham  Moor,  we  get  some 
interesting  side-lights  on  local  ways  in  the  busy  time  of  the  monastery, 
and  old  Ned  Hodgson,  of  Kilnsey,  then  in  his  eighty-third  year,  tells 
us  that  he  knew  the  Abbots  of  Fountains  for  full  thirty  years  apace, 
before  the  dissolution  of  the  House.  Every  year,  he  says,  the  flocks  of 
sheep,  which  were  depastured  on  Fountains  Fell  were  brought  from 
thence  to  Kilnsey,  where  they  were  clipped  and  the  wool  was  then 
carried  away  in  wains  to  Fountains  Abbey,  and  never  was  any  tithe 
paid  for  sheep  pasturing  on  the  monks'  Fells  there.  The  monks  had 
had  a  right  of  way  granted  to  them  over  Grassington  and  Hebden 
Moors  by  the  respective  lords  of  those  manors,  the  Plumptons 

*  The  original  is  at  Studk-y  Royal. 


468 

particularly  being  very  friendly  with  the  Abbots  and  their  men  when 
they  came  into  the  district  to  hold  their  courts  and  enjoy  a  few  days' 
hunting  in  the  neighbourhood.  The  Plumptons  kept  their  own 
minstrel  and  in  the  old  bursar's  accounts  of  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  when  Abbot  Greenwell  ruled  the  estate,  there  appears  an 
entry  of  Sd.  paid  to  Sir  Wm.  Plumpton's  minstrel  for  entertaining  the 
brethren  of  the  monastery.  At  this  time  wheat  was  selling  in  Craven 
at  4s.  a  quarter,  barley  at  3*.  and  oats  for  is  4d.  a  quarter.  The 
Abbot  at  the  same  time  was  using  toilet  soap  at  4d.  per  pound,  equal 
to  about  55.  of  our  money.  In  1535  the  Abbots'  estate  at  Kilnsey 
was  returned  as  worth  by  the  year  of  ^14  iys.  id.,  equal  to  about 


THE   OLD    HALL,   KILNSEY. 

£150  of  present  value.  The  manor  of  Kilnsey,  as  before  related, 
passed  to  the  family  of  Yorke,  6th  Edward  VI.,  and  from  them  the 
Chapel  House  estate  was  purchased  by  the  Tennants. 

The  old  Hall  or  manor-house  at  Kilnsey,  depicted  on  the 
plate,  is  now  used  for  farm  purposes.  It  has  been  a  good  house  of 
three  stories,  with  plain  mullion-windows  and  characteristic  classic 
gable-finials.  It  was  originally  enclosed  within  a  courtyard  and 
approached  through  two  large  archways.  But  the  whole  of  these  are 
gone.  Over  one  of  the  entrances  are  the  initials  and  date  C.W.  1648, 
no  doubt  indicating  the  builder  of  the  house,  Christopher  Wade, 
whose  son  Cuthbert  Wade,  was  a  Captain  in  the  Royalist  forces 
during  the  Civil  War.  He  had  to  compound  for  his  estates  and  was 


469 

£222.  He  was  thrice  married  (i)t<>  Agnes,  daughter  of  Matthew 
Brackin,  of  Litton  (PLinton) ;  (2)  to  Dorothy,  daughter  of  Francis 
Malham,  of  Elslack,  (3)  to  Frances,  daughter  of  William  Bilbye  of 
Killerhy  and  Micklethwaite  Orange,  near  Wetherby.  An  extended 
pedigree  of  this  old  Dale  family  has  not  been  compiled,  and  it  would 
be  interesting  to  trace  its  descent.  A  family  of  Wade  was  living  at 
Plumtree  Banks,  in  the  parish  of  Addingham  in  the  iyth  century, 
and  near  the  south  wall  of  Kildwick  Church,  in  Airedale,  there  is  a 
stone  inscribed  to  the  memory  of  Thomas  Wade,  of  Silsden  Moor,  in 
that  neighbourhood,  who  "after  a  life  of  plainness,  uprightness  and 
temperance,"  departed  this  life,  February  nth  1810,  in  the  io3rd 
year  of  his  age. 

The  ancient  homestead  at  Kilnsey  is  also  interesting  as  one  of 
the  houses  where  the  celebrated  Lady  Anne,  Countess  of  Pembroke, 
Lady  of  the  great  Skipton  fee,  lodged  and  was  entertained  by  Mr. 
Cuthbert  Wade  during  one  of  her  progresses  northwards  to  her  castles 
in  Westmorland.  She  made  the  wild  and  difficult  journey  in  1663 
when  in  her  74th  year.  The  memory  of  the  good  Countess  remains 
indelibly  impressed  in  the  brightest  annals  of  Craven.  She  was  a 
brave,  intellectual  woman,  a  great  traveller  and  keen  observer,  while 
her  charity  was  unbounded.  She  held  a  remarkable  and  conspicuous 
position  in  an  age  that  was  coarse  and  ill-sparing,  but  her  high  place 
and  bearing  and  the  traditions  of  her  ancient  family  were  maintained 
with  a  grace,  character  and  dignity  which  have  rarely  been  equalled. 
Her  zeal  as  a  builder  and  "restorer  of  breaches"  in  church,  castle, 
hospital  and  homestead,  is  a  matter  of  common  history,  and  well 
might  her  friend  Rainbow,  the  learned  Bishop  of  Carlisle,  say  when 
in  1675  he  preached  her  funeral  sermon  that  she  was  a  wise,  scholarly 
and  honourable  woman,  who  like  the  blessed  Mary  chose  above  all 
things  to  learn  the  doctrine  of  Christ. 

Kilnsey  has  also  some  other  notabiiia  besides  the  old  Hall.  I 
have  mentioned  the  famous  Crag,  whose  lofty  crown  is  suspended 
threateningly  above  the  public  highway  as  you  leave  the  village  towards 
Kettlewell.  The  castle-like  wall  of  limestone  (not  granite  as  poet 
Broughton  wrote  seventy  years  ago),  forming  what  may  be  likened  to 
a  succession  of  round-towers,  is  nearly  1 70  feet  high  to  the  summit 
from  the  road,  and  is  the  inacessible  haunt  of  numbers  of  martins, 
jackdaws  and  starlings.  Other  birds  such  as  the  tree-pipit,  black-cap 
warbler  and  wood-wren  also  breed  in  the  district,  and  in  1866  when 
the  members  of  the  Haley  Hill  Literary  and  Scientific  Society  visited 
Kilnsey,  they  found  here  a  pied-wagtail's  nest  containing  the  very 
unusual  number  of  ten  eggs.  The  circumstance  is  not  explained,  but 
there  is  little  doubt  that  two  hens  have  laid  in  the  same  nest,  and  a 
close  inspection  of  the  eggs  would  have  proved  this.  At  the  top  of 
the-  Crag  some  good  insects  have  been  taken,  too,  including  Pyrausta 
Ostrinalis  and  Larentia  miaria,  as  well  as  several  interesting  plants. 


47° 

the  blood-cranesbill  (Geraneum  sanguineum)  being  particularly  fine 
here.  The  sea-plantain  ateo  grows  near  the  Crag.  A  couple  of  wild 
goats — the  Craven  "chamois" — have  roamed  about  the  fells  above 
the  Crag  time  out  of  memory,  and  I  have  heard  it  said  they  are  at 
least  a  hundred  years  old,  but  this  is  doubtless  an  exaggeration.  Mr. 
Inman  of  the  Tennanfs  Arms  says  he  has  known  them  about  forty 
years,  but  how  much  longer  they  have  been  there  is  uncertain. 

Standing  as  the  Crag  does  at  the  junction  of  the  Skirfare  valley 
with  the  Wharfe  there  is  little  doubt  but  that  the  majestic  cliff,  whose 
presence  is  created  by  the  great  Craven  Fault,  has  been  subject  to  the 
grinding  action  of  glaciers,  which  united  at  this  point,  and  have  been 


KILNSEY    CRAG. 

the  cause  of  the  conspicuous  rounding  of  the  angle  of  the  crag,  seen 
in  the  accompanying  plate. 

In  the  shadow  of  the  old  Crag  stands  the  long-established 
Tennanfs  Arms,  a  large  and  comfortable  hostelry  with  ample  stabling, 
kept  for  the  last  twenty  years  by  a  member  of  an  old  Dale  family, 
Mr.  Henry  Inman.  There  is  also  another  good  licensed  house  here, 
the  Anglers'  inn,  established  in  1760  and  for  more  than  half-a-century 
landlorded  by  John  Inman,  father  of  the  present  proprietor  of  the 
Tennanfs  Arms.  In  1882  the  Anglers'  license  was  dropped  by  Mr. 
Tennant,  the  owner  of  both  houses,  but  some  years  afterwards  it 
was  renewed,  and  the  inn  has  since  been  improved. 

Kilnsey  has  a  very  old  fame  for  its  quality  as  an  angling  resort, 
and  "fishermen's  yarns"  of  big  baskets  and  narrow  escapes  of  still 


bigger  might  be  spun  out  to  the  length  even  of  a  small  volume.  I 
have  heard  it  whispered  that  certain  crack  anglers  have  killed  as 
many  as  1200  trout  here  in  a  single  season.  But  those  were  palmy 
days  before  the  drainage  of  the  surrounding  fields  and  fells  acted 
prejudicially  on  the  water-supply  in  the  river.  Often  in  summer-time 
the  river  runs  very  low,  and  the  fishing  is  then  not  of  the  best. 
A  considerable  extent  of  water  (some  ten  miles)  is  preserved,  but  only 
members  of  the  Kilnsey  Club  are  permitted  to  fish  without  char. 
To  non-members  the  fee  is  55.  daily.  The  Kilnsey  Club,  says  Mr. 
S.  Milne-Milne,  was  formed  about  1840,  chiefly  by  a  few  Halifax 
anglers,  excellent  fishermen  they  were,  unsurpassed  even  now,  who 
had  for  some  years  previously  angled  in  the  Wharfe  at  Kilnsey. 

The  district  has  always  been  from  the  remotest  times  a  favorite- 
one  for  sport,  whether  we  call  up  visions  of  the  old  Briton  hunting 
boar  and  bison,  or  whether  in  feudal  times  we  picture  the  wild  deer 
chased  by  the  lords  of  the  fee,  or  in  recent  times,  when  crag  and 
scar  resounded  with  the  echo  of  hound  and  horn,  and  the  dalesfolk 
came  for  miles  round  to  witness  the  picturesque  "  meets,"  or  join  in 
the  run.  Mr.  Wm.  Gomersall,  in  his  interesting  little  book,  Hunting 
in  Craven,  tells  us  that  Mr.  Hammond  kept  beagles,  and  hunted  this 
part  of  Craven  for  many  years,  and  occasionally  hunted  a  couple  of 
days  at  Horton,  and  also  around  Austwick  or  Clapham,  previous  to 
Mr.  Christopher  Ingleby's  harriers  in  that  locality.  Kilnsey,  he  says, 
likewise  lays  claim  to  some  years  of  this  sport,  with  a  spirited  pack 
that  often  made  the  immense  Crag  which  projects  into  the  dale  echo 
with  their  music,  and  so  all  along  the  extensive  limestone  ranges  in 
this  romantic  part  of  Wharfedale  when  the  beagles  were  in  full  cry. 

The  new  Upper  Wharfedale  Agricultural  Society,  which  held 
its  first  annual  show  at  Kilnsey  in  September,  1897,  proves  that  in 
the  hands  of  its  capable  hon.  secretary,  Mr.  G.  H.  Clayton,  the  district 
means  to  keep  pace  with  the  times.  The  horses  shewn  have 
generally  been  of  very  good  quality,  while  the  cows  in  calf  or  milk 
have  more  than  sustained  the  high  reputation  which  the  district  of 
Upper  Craven  bears  in  this  class  of  animal.  The  show  of  butter  has 
also  been  of  an  exceptionally  good  character,  which  gives  promise  of 
much  success  in  the  future. 


CHAPTER    XLII. 


KETTLEWELL. 

Remoteness  trom  railways  —  Proposed  line  up  Wharfedale — The  charm  ot  isolation 
Local  inns  and  accommodation — The  Great  Scar-Limestone — Formation  of  terraces 
Ancient  "terraced  reins" —Antiquity  of  local  husbandry — Prehistoric  evidences — 
Scale  Park  Hunting  Lodge  -Name  of  Kettlewell  — Progress  ot  agriculture — 
Manorial  history — Old  families— The  church — Wesleyan  Chapel — Kettlewell 
blacksmiths  —  Inns — Romantic  scenery — Douk  cave. 

^^r^r^"^  K  are  now  approaching  the  head  of  Wharfedale,  where 
in  the  shelter  of  majestic  sweeps  of  mountain-limestone 
.clothed  with  the  sweetest  herbage,  stands  the  little 
village  of  Kettlewell.  Rural  and  romantic  in  its 
environment  the  little  place  lies  dreamily  retired  from 
the  great  arteries  of  public  traffic,  miles  away  from  the  suggesting 
hurry  of  railways.  There  are  it  is  said  more  than  250  railway- 
stations  within  a  six-mile  radius  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  London, 
while  within  a  twelve-mile  radius  there  are  computed  to  be  nearly 
400  stations.  The  inhabitants  of  this  sequestered  Wharfedale 
village  may  possibly  regard  with  no  small  envy  a  statement  of  this 
nature,  considering  that  they  are  15  miles  from  the  nearest  railway- 
platform.*  A  line  through  the  dale  would  no  doubt  be  a  great 
convenience  to  the  farm-folk  scattered  among  these  wild  mountain- 
pastures,  but  the  Company  has  yet  to  be  found  possessed  of  the 
necessary  enterprise  to  sink  what  would  probably  be  required  to 
carry  out  such  an  undertaking,  namely  a  capital  of  at  least  a  million  of 
pounds  sterling.  The  Skipton  and  Ilkley  line  (eleven  miles)  it  may  be 
remarked,  cost  ^400,000,  so  that  an  approximate  idea  may  be  formed 
of  the  cost  of  constructing  a  line  through  romantic  Wharfedale,  say 
from  Skipton  to  Buckden,  nineteen  miles.  In  return  for  this  outlay  a 
comparison  may  be  instituted  between  the  actual  and  probable  pas- 
senger and  goods  traffic  of  the  two  lines  in  the  course  of  twelve  months. 

Although  a  light  railway  to  Grassington  has  reached  the  stage 
of  practical  accomplishment,  very  little  reflection  will  I  think  make  it 
manifest  that  the  "solitary  and  beautiful  Wharfedale"  beyond  will, 
for  a  good  many  years  at  any  rate,  have  to  remain  "  solitary  and 
beautiful,"  and  that  the  men  of  Kettlewelldale  will  have  to  continue 
carting  their  fuel  and  goods  as  their  forefathers  have  done  since  the 
days  of  Hardicanute. 

*  It  has  been  often  stated  that  Kettlewell  is  the  most  remote  place  from  a  railway- 
station  in  England.  But  this  is  not  correct.  The  village  of  Fai  1<  v-cum-Pitton  is 
nearly  thirty  miles  from  a  station,  and  probably  claims  that  particular  distinction. 


474 

But  I  am  prone  to  confess  that  from  an  outsiders'  standpoint, 
not  a  little  of  the  charm  of  this  delightful  neighbourhood  is  due  to 
its  perfect  quietude  and  isolation.  Once  settled  down  here,  there  is 
no  thought  of  hurry  or  bustle ;  no  distracting  influences  break  the 
spell  of  Nature's  soothing  enchantment,  nothing  there  is  to  mar  the 
contemplation  of  rugged  scar  and  wide  shepherded-fell  that  seem  to 
shut  you  out  from  the  busy  world  of  worry  and  care.  Quiet, 
comfortable  lodgings,  wholesome  fare  and  very  moderate  charges, 
will  be  found  the  conditions  of  a  temporary  sojourn  "  among  the 
cliffs  and  winding  scars "  of  Upper  Wharfedale.  It  has  been  said 
that  Kettlewell  is  "  fifteen  miles  from  a  lemon,"  as  Sidney  Smith 
similarly  remarked  of  some  outlandish  place  he  once  visited.  But 
this  is  doing  the  village  an  injustice.  Fare  even  to  the  nicest 
season's  dainties  may  ordinarily  be  obtained  at  those  inns  in  the 
dale,  specially  equipped  for  the  entertainment  of  visitors.  Chicken 
and  tomatoes,  salmon  and  cucumber,  the  best  wines  and  spirits  (with 
a  lemon  if  you  wish)  and  aerated  waters,  may  in  season  generally 
be  had  for  the  asking. 

In  point  of  interest  the  scenery  of  the  neighbourhood  of 
Kettlewell  is  not  behind  the  most  attractive  parts  of  the  dale.  There 
is,  however,  little  wood;  on  the  other  hand  nowhere  in  the  dale  is 
the  grand  massive  Sca.r  Limestone  so  finely  evidenced  as  it  is  here. 
In  the  neighbourhood  of  Kettlewell  there  are  nearly  800  feet  thickness 
of  limestone  visible  without  reaching  the  base.  Above  it  lie  the 
Yoredale  shales  &c.,  capped  by  the  Millstone  Grits  of  Great  Whernside, 
which  reaches  an  altitude  of  2,310  feet,  two  or  three  miles  east  of 
the  town.  The  limestone  is  usually  very  much  bleached  from 
weathering,  which  gives  it  a  white,  and  in  sunlight  a  somewhat 
dazzling  appearance.  The  rock  appears  weathered  in  continuous 
terraces  formed  along  interrupted  lines  of  bedding,  with  an  occasional 
thin  parting  of  clay  or  plate.  Terraces  have  also  in  many  places 
been  artificially  formed  along  the  acclivities  in  order  to  prevent  the 
thin  soil,  overlying  the  limestone,  from  being  washed  away  by  the 
rains  which  sometimes  sweep  with  deluging  force  down  the  steep 
sides  of  the  fells.  When  this  was  done  the  land  was  all  open  and  in 
common,  having  been  parcelled  out  into  long  narrow  strips,  divided 
by  balks  or  terraced  reins,  a  method  of  cultivation  of  high  antiquity, 
which  was  formerly  general  among  all  the  ancient  Aryan  nations. 
The  strips  were  usually  from  five  to  ten  yards  wide,  and  from  two 
hundred  to  eight  hundred  yards  long  (see  page  297)  and  they  might 
run  horizontally  along  the  sides  of  the  hills,  or  lie  straight  up  and 
down  according  to  the  nature  of  the  ground  or  the  conditions  under 
which  they  were  tenanted.  When  the  land  was  enclosed  this  century, 
long  stone  fences  were  erected,  but  the  old  ruins  remain  in  many 
places  the  silent  witnesses  of  a  bygone  generation  and  usage.  In 
Palestine  and  under  the  Incas  of  Peru,  similar  terraces  on  the  abrupt 


•175 

"I"  the  hills  have  been  cultivated  and  even  formed  into  garden- 
plots  after  the  manner  of  the  "terraced  gardens"  of  the  early  Jewish 
kings. 

Land  has  been  cultivated  at  Kettlewell  from  an  early  period. 
There  was  a  carucate,  or  from  160  to  180  acres  under  the  plough 
when  the  Norsemen  held  the  estate  in  1066.  There  was  probably  no 
settlement  on  the  site  of  the  present  village  before  the  invasion  of 
Hubba  and  Halfden  in  the  ninth  century.  But  under  Whernside 
and  along  the  fells  towards  Collision  and  Grassington  are  very 
abundant  evidences,  as  I  have  already  shewn,  of  the  occupation  of 
the  dist rut  in  British  and  Roman  times.  One  of  the  most  extensive 
entrenched  works  in  the  North  of  England  is  to  be  found  about  two 
miles  east  of  the  town,  running  for  more  than  a  mile  through  Scale 
Park  in  the  direction  of  Coverdale.  Likewise  on  the  fell  to  the 
north  of  Kettlewell  there  is  a  spot  known  from  time  immemorial  as 
Borrans,  which  like  Borrans  near  Linton,  and  the  Burvvens  at  Elslack, 
no  doubt  indicate  a  site  occupied  by  native  Celts  which  was 
abandoned  and  suffered  to  remain  in  ruins  when  the  Viking  Norse 
swept  down  the  dale  from  Cumberland  and  the  Isle  of  Man.  The 
word  seems  to  be  borrowed  by  the  Irish  Vikings  from  the  Irish 
boireann,  signifying  rocky  ground,  either  natural  or  artificial,  or 
according  to  Dr.  Wright's  English  l^ialcct  Dictionary,  it  may  have 
been  "a  kind  of  fortication."  A  large  farm-shed  has  been  built  upon 
the  site  and  is  called  Borrans  Barn. 

In  the  name  of  the  well-known  Scale  Park,  too,  we  have  further 
evidence  of  the  Viking  occupation  of  the  district.  This  word  Scale 
being,  as  I  have  before  explained,  the  Scand.  scali,  a  hut  or  home- 
stead, equivalent  to  the  Scotch  "sheal,"  and  in  the  famous  Leyburn 
Shawl,  in  \Vensleydale,  I  have  no  doubt  a  similar  meaning  is  implied. 
The  principal  house  at  Scale  Park  is  of  high  antiquity,  and  in  1410 
was  erected  into  a  hunting  seat  and  embattled  by  royal  licence,  for 
the  use  of  the  puissant  chief,  Ralph  Neville,  the  great  Earl  of 
Westmorland. 

Then  if  we  descend  to  the  earliest  records  of  the  name  of 
Kettlewell,  the  old  warrior  Viking  crops  up  again  with  redoubled 
force.  In  Domesday  Book  it  is  written  Chrteluuelk,  the  prefix  no 
doubt  containing  the  name  of  the  original  Norse  settler,  one  Ketel,  a 
name  that  occurs  twenty-five  times  in  this  ancient  inquest;  while 
there  are  nearly  half-a-hundred  landowners  of  the  name  Ketel  and 
Ketil  in  the  Icelandic  Landnama  Book.  The  suffix  is  probably  to 
be  found  in  the  Teut.  wetter,  Old  German  wila,  a  hamlet,  as 
Rothwell  in  Baden,  anciently  Rotwila.* 

*  See  also  the  Saga  Book  of  the  Viking  Club,  1898,  pp.  110-114.  Kytelwylle,  in 
Oxfordshire,  is  also  mentioned  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  Charters,  No.  775.  Vide  Leo,  Local 
Nomenclature  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  page  30. 


476 

The  manor  of  Kettlewell  was  part  of  the  great  Percy  Fee  and 
at  an  early  date  was  granted  to  Osbert  de  Arches  whose  descendants 
were  long  the  proprietors.  Wonderful  progress  had  been  made  in 
the  extension  of  agriculture  in  this  neighbourhood  in  the  i3th 
century.  In  the  prosperous  days  of  Edward  I.,  instead  of  the 
one  carucate  of  Domesday  there  were  then  eight  carucates  providing 
food  and  maintenance  for  the  people  of  Kettlewell.  Of  these  eight 
carucates  two  were  held  by  Elias  de  Knoll,  or  Knolles,  of  Robert 
de  Gray,  and  the  Abbot  of  Coverham.  The  Abbot  also  held  three 
carucates  of  the  same  Robert  de  Gray,  who  was  a  grand-nephew  of 
the  celebrated  Walter  Gray,  Archbishop  of  York.  The  other  three 
carucates  were  held  of  the  heirs  of  the  family  of  Arches  and  they  of 
the  heirs  of  Percy. 

The  last  of  the  Grays  of  Rotherfield,  died  in  1387-8  when  their 
interest  in  Kettlewell  descended  through  the  Deincourts  to  Ralph, 
Earl  of  Westmorland.  This  was  apparently  in  1404  as  I  find  from 
a  Letter  of  Attorney  in  the  Public  Record  Office,  that  in  6th  Henry 
VI.  Richard  Toppan  and  William  Home  were  ordered  by  the  said 
Ralph,  Earl  of  Westmorland,  to  receive  from  the  Abbot  and  Convent 
of  Coverham  seisin  of  a  moiety  of  the  manor  and  vill  of  Ketilwelle 
in  Craven.  There  were  also  other  lands  &c.  in  the  township 
comprehended  in  this  transfer,  including  tenements  called  Skalegill, 
Stangill,  Hometreselightes,  Roulgille  and  Coverhede  in  Coverdale, 
with  common  of  pasture  &c.  The  Nevilles  retained  their  moiety  of 
the  manor  until  the  attainder  of  the  last  Earl  in  1569,  when  it  was 
forfeited  to  the  Crown  and  eventually  sold  off.  The  Abbey  of 
Coverham  retained  the  other  moiety  until  the  Dissolution,  when  the 
land  passed  also  to  various  owners,  but  the  lordship  of  the  manor 
has  continued  to  be  held  in  trust  by  the  Crown. 

Much  of  the  property  was  held  by  the  Cliffords,  and  from 
an  unpublished  account  of  rents  £c.  due  to  Francis,  Earl  of 
Cumberland,  I  find  a  list  of  about  eighty  tenants  in  the  bailiwick  of 
Kettle welldale,  who  owed  suit  of  court  to  the  Earl  in  1610.  The 
first  name  on  the  list  is  Henry  Moorhouse,  followed  by  Lancelot 
Marton,  Wm.  Toppan,  John  Smyth  (there  have  been  Toppans  and 
Smiths  at  Kettlewell  for  500  years).  Thos.  Ellis  (a  family  long 
resident  at  Kilnsey)  Henry  Rypley  de  Calverdayll,  Margaret 
Tennant,  Thomas  Inman,  &c.  The  perquisites  of  the  courts  held 
at  Skipton  for  the  said  bailiwick  every  three  weeks  amounted  to 
£l  1 6s.  with  two  courts-leet  and  views  of  frankpleclge,  one  held 
i4th  April  realised  in  the  said  year  ending  on  the  morrow  of  the 
Feast  of  St.  Martin,  Bishop,  in  winter  1610,  ^9  gs.  4d.  and  the  other 
held  1 3th  Oct.  £10  175.  8d.  Of  waifs  and  strays  6  sheep  were 
taken  at  Hartlington  in  custody  of  Thos.  Moorby,  deputy  bailiff. 
Allowance  was  made  to  the  accountants  for  lands  in  Woodhouse 
and  Appletrewick,  late^parcel  of  the  Priory  of  Marton.  Anthony 


477 

Horner,  miller,  of  Appletrewick,  was  convicted  of  felony,  whereof 
his  goods  fell  to  the  lord.  Probably  executions  at  the  gallows  at 
Appletrewick  had  ere  this  lapsed  by  desuetude,  although  persons 
were  hanged  at  Richmond  in  the  North  Riding  until  1613,  (see 
page  44). 

The  church  at  Kettlewell,  according  to  Torre,  was  a  rectory  of 
two  medieties,  the  one  belonging  to  the  patronage  of  the  Lords 
Gray,  of  Rotherfield,  and  the  other  to  the  Abbot  and  Convent  of 
Coverham.  In  1348  the  latter  mediety  was  appropriated  by  the 
Archbishop's  authority  and  a  vicarage  ordained,  which  was  presented 
to  him  by  the  Abbot  and  Convent  of  Coverham  until  the  dissolution 
of  the  House.  The  presentation  is  now  in  lay  hands  and  the  present 
able  and  energetic  vicar  is  the  Rev.  J.  W.  Cockerill,  who  succeeded 
the  Rev.  D.  Haslewood  in  1898. 

The  church  (St.  Mary's),  possesses  little  interest  save  a  few 
fragments  of  ancient  sculptured  stones  and  an  early  font.  The  old 
edifice  was  pulled  down  in  1819  and  the  present  church  was  built  on 
its  site.  It  was  restored  in  1885  when  a  new  chancel,  south  porch 
and  roof  were  added.  The  original  building  was  a  plain  structure 
having  narrow  Norman  lights  and  neither  aisles  nor  tower.  It  is  to 
be  regretted  that  this  unique  old  temple  was  not  preserved.  The 
late  Miss  Currer,  of  Eshton  Hall,  whose  interest  in  the  venerable 
buildings  and  antiquities  of  Craven  deserves  grateful  remembrance, 
ordered,  I  am  told,  drawings  to  be  made  at  her  own  expense,  of  all 
the  old  churches  in  Craven,  and  amongst  them  that  at  Kettlewell, 
but  unfortunately  they  cannot  now  be  found.* 

Followers  of  John  Wesley  were  pretty  numerous  about  Kettlewell 
in  the  early  part  of  the  century,  but  their  chapel  here  was  not  built 
until  1835.  Its  windows  look  out  on  "the  green  hills  flanked  with 
grey  scars  whose  feet  are  buried  in  ferns  and  low  hazel-bushes,  while 
the  modest  lily  spangling  with  its  snowy  blossoms  these  fair  hill-sides, 
as  they  do  in  the  blessed  Land  of  Caanan,  seem  as  the  emblems  of 
His  imperishable  Church,  which  shall  grow  in  sweetness  as  the  lily 
and  spread  forth  its  roots  as  Lebanon.  At  one  time  this  little  House 
of  God  was  wont  to  be  crowded  with  honest  worshippers,  but  since 
the  closing  of  the  lead-mines  the  congregation  has  much  thinned,  and 
few  are  left  who  remember  the  chapel  in  its  hey-day.  Prominent 
among  the  zealous  body  of  worshippers  was  old  John  Platt,  the 
village  smith,  a  man  worthy  of  that  old  race  of  honest  blacksmiths 
whose  hammer  and  anvil  have  resounded  in  Kettlewell  since  the  days 
of  the  feudal  Kings.  "  Awd  Platt,"  as  he  was  called,  was  a  man  of 
great  sincerity  and  force  of  character.  He  was  full  of  life's  energy, 

*  In  the  Catalogue  of  the  Library  of  Miss  Currer,  of  Eshton  Hall  (1820)  mention  is 
made  on  page  251  of  Sixteen  Original  Drawings  of  Views  in  Craven  (oblong  folio)  by 
J.  C.  Holland. 


and  when  he  preached,  as  he  did  occasionally,  you  could,  as  a  native 
once  remarked  to  me,  "  hear  the  bellows  roar."  He  was  a  great 
temperance  advocate  at  the  time  when  such  men  were  sorely  needed, 
and  many  a  man  owes  his  bettered  state  of  life  to  old  John's 
pleadings.  He  was  not  a  bigot,  and  used  to  say  there  was  "  no 
harm  in  a'nod  glass  if  a  chap  wod  nobbut  stop  theear."  On  one 
occasion  he  was  preaching  on  the  evils  of  drink  and  was  waxing 
warm  on  his  subject  when  a  man  in  the  gallery  suddenly  got  up  and 
called  out:  "  Thoo  meeans  me,  awd  Platt ! "  "  Neea,  aw  dooant 
meean  thee,  Reuben  lad,  but  if  t'cap  fits  tha,  put  it  on  !  "  "  Aw 
will,"  cried  Reuben,  and  suiting  the  action  to  the  word,  took  up  his 
cap  and  marched  off  down  stairs  and  across  the  chapel  floor  and 
away  out  of  doors  ! 


WESLEYAN    CHAPEL,   KETTLEWELL. 

Seventy  years  ago  Wm.  Dixon  was  the  village  smith.  At  this 
time  there  was  a  little  cotton-spinning  done  in  the  village,  but  the 
bulk  of  the  inhabitants  were  engaged  on  the  land,  and  at  the  local 
lead-mines.  The  excellent  Race  Horses  hotel  was  then  kept  by  John 
Marshall,  and  the  Blue  Bell  by  James  Pickard,  while  Richard 
Tennant  had  the  Windmill  inn.  The  land  is  now  all  in  grazing,  but 
formerly  there  was  a  good  deal  of  corn  grown  about  Kettlewell,  there 
being  a  weekly  market  on  Thursdays  for  corn,  &c.  The  cattle  fairs 
were  held  on  July  6th,  September  2nd,  and  October  23rd. 

The  scenery  around  Kettlewell  is,  as  I  have  observed,  wild  and 
romantic,  and  there  are  fine  mountain  walks  into  Coverdale,  or 
westward  by  the  so-called  "Slit"  to  Arncliffe  in  Littondale,  a  short 


479 

three  niile-«.  The  view  of  Kettlewell  from  the  Kilnsey  road  on  this 
side  of  the  valley  is  extremely  fine,  shewing  the  whole  of  the  town 
with  the  terraced  scars  and  the  gaunt  form  of  Great  Whernside 
towering  beyond.  The  scene  is  admirably  depicted  in  Brownsworth's 
photograph  engraved  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter. 

It  was  fine  natural  country  of  this  description  that  inspired 
|.  M.  W.  Turner,  the  prince  of  landscape  painters,  with  the 
capabilities  of  his  art.  "  The  scenery  whose  influence  I  can  trace 
most  definitely  throughout  his  works,"  writes  Mr.  Ruskin,  "  is  that 
of  Yorkshire.  His  first  conceptions  of  mountain  scenery  seem  to 
have  been  taken  from  Yorkshire,  and  its  rounded  hills,  far-winding 
rivers,  and  broken  limestone  scars  to  have  formed  a  type  in  his  mind 
to  which  he  sought,  so  far  as  might  be  obtained,  some  correspondent 
imagery  in  other  landscapes/' 

And  then  the  lovely  sunsets  which  sometimes  light  up  the  grey 
scars  with  magical  radiance  !  A  lady  once  said  to  Turner,  of  one 
of  his  glorious  sunsets  :  "  I  never  saw  anything  like  this  in  Nature  !  " 
"  No,  madam,"  replied  the  great  artist,  "but  don't  you  wish  you 
could  ? '' 

One  of  the  finest  mountain  walks  is  to  the  top  of  Great 
Whernside  (2310  feet),  whence  a  descent  can  be  made  by  Angram 
into  romantic  Upper  Nidderdale.  It  is  a  long  and  lonely  tramp,  and 
should  not  be  attempted  unless  there  is  plenty  of  daylight  before  \<>u. 
In  former  years  the  writer  has  had  some  rough  experiences  on  these 
fells.  On  the  way  Uouk  Cave  may  be  taken,  which  is  reached  by  the 
Coverdale  road,  and  thence  by  a  path  along  the  fell  side  to  a  small 
bridge,  east  of  which  is  the  stream  issuing  from  the  cave.  It  is  in  ;i 
wild  and  secluded  spot,  and  there  is  little  doubt  that  when  the  district 
was  subject  to  the  assaults  of  the  successive  invasions  of  Roman, 
Pict,  and  Anglo-Saxon,  the  cave  was  the  refuge  of  the  hard-driven 
natives.  At  one  time  quantities  of  human  bones  were  found  in  it. 
The  cave  is  somewhat  difficult  of  access,  but  when  the  water  is 
sufficiently  low  it  is  best  explored  by  walking  up  the  bed  of  the 
stream.  There  are  several  branch  passages  which  penetrate  the 
mountain  for  a  considerable  distance,  although  the  actual  traversable 
distance  is  not  more  than  about  five  hundred  yards. 


CHAPTER    XLIII. 


A  TRAMP  THROUGH  LITTONDALE. 

Local  possessions  of  Fountain  Abbey — Wild  beasts  and  birds  of  prey— The  eagle  in 
Littondale — Last  record  of  the  eagle  in  Wharfedale — Routes  into  Littondale- 
Hawkswick — The  Horse  Hea'U  pass — Across  Malham  Moors — Dalesfolk  and  the 
Transvaal  War — Rainfall  in  Littondale — Heat  and  cold — Local  longevity— Vicars 
of  Arncliffe — Botany  of  Littondale — Some  rare  wild  flowers — The  church  at 
Arncliffe — Halton  Gill  chapel  &c.—  Wild  scenery. 

JLTHOUGH  the  valley  of  the  Skirfare,  or  "deep  fork  of 
Amerdale"  as  poetically  described  by  Wordsworth,*  is 
not  properly  in  Wharfedale,  yet  it  holds  such  close 
relationship  with  the  history  and  scenery  of  the 
romantic  Upper  Wharfe  that  some  notice  of  it  will 
naturally  be  expected  in  this  work.  The  whole  of  the  valley  was 
within  the  Percy  fee,  and  Richard  de  Percy  gave  the  village  of 
Litton  and  Littondale  to  the  monks  of  Fountains,  as  described  by 
the  boundaries,  and  Alice,  his  relict,  quitclaimed  the  same,  as  did 
John,  son  of  Oliver  de  Deyncourt  and  Agnes,  his  wife,  which  was 
confirmed  by  Henry  III. 

In  1294  Henry  de  Percy  confirmed  to  the  Abbot  and  Convent 
every  grant  made  by  his  ancestors,  for  which  recognizance  the  said 
Abbot  and  Convent  of  Fountains  gave  to  the  said  Henry  de  Percy 
and  his  heirs,  all  kinds  of  wild  beasts  and  birds  of  prey  in  this  dale, 
and  his  chief  Forester  was  to  have  the  care  of  them.  The  mention 
of  "  birds  of  prey  "  leaves  very  little  room  to  doubt  that  the  eagle, 
merlin,,  and  peregrine  falcon  were  at  that  time  common  residents  in 
Littondale,  and  it  is  more  than  probable  that  Arncliffe,  the  capital 
village  in  the  dale  and  head  of  an  extensive  parish,  derives  its  name 
from  the  Anglo-Saxon  earn,  an  eagle,  and  clyf,  a  cliff,  in  allusion  to 
the  high  rocks  in  this  neighbourhood,  anciently  the  haunt  and 
resting-place  of  these  birds.  Eagles  have  not  bred  in  Upper 
Wharfedale  within  living  recollection,  but  in  the  adjoining  county  of 
Westmorland  and  in  Cumberland  they  were  not  uncommon  down  to 
the  end  of  last  century.  The  old  churchwardens'  accounts  for 
Crosthwaite,  for  example,  contain  many  entries  of  payments  made  for 
the  capture  and  slaughter  of  eagles  down  to  1765,  while  in  1796-7 
the  white-tailed  eagle  bred  near  Keswick.  More  recently  a  pair  of 
golden-eagles  were  observed  for  about  three  months  during  the  year 

*  Dr.  Whitaker  states,  but  without  authority,  that  Amerdale  was  the  more  ancient 
and  original  name  of  this  valley.  But  Litton  is  a  place  of  Anglo-Saxon  antiquity  and 
probably  existed  as  a  Saxon  settlement  before  the  parish  of  Arncliffe  was  formed  or 
Amerdale  was  heard  of.  In  a  charter  of  Adeliza  de  Romelli,  ca  1150,  Langstroth  in 
"Allerdale"  is  mentioned,  apparently  the  same. 


481 

1  836  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Helvellyn.*  In  Wharfedale  they 
occasionally  appear  as  stragglers  from  Scotland,  and  Mr.  A.  Spence 
of  Weston  Manor,  near  Ilkley,  says  that  in  November,  1885,  while 
walking  in  a  meadow  at  the  back  of  his  house,  he  observed  a  large 
golden  eagle  feeding  upon  a  dead  sheep,  and  early  on  the  following 
morning  a  farmer  gathering  turnips  saw  the  strange  bird  making  a 
breakfast  of  the  same  sheep.  This  is,  I  believe,  the  last  record  of 
an  eagle  having  been  seen  in  Wharfedale. 

From  Kilnsey  or  Kettlewell  there  is  a  good  road  through 
Littondale  to  Arncliffe  and  Halton  Gill  and  forward  to  the  moors  of 
Langstrothdale  Chase,  which  bound  the  head  of  the  valley.  There 
is  also  a  good  road  along  the  north  bank  of  the  Skirfare  to  the 
picturesquely  seated  little  village  of  Hawkswick.  In  proceeding 
along  the  south  side  of  the  valley  the  village  is  seen  high  up  on  the 
opposite  side  seeming  to  cling  to  the  craggy  fell  like  a  hawk's  or 
eagle's  nest.  The  place  is  mentioned  in  Domesday  as  ffochesvuic, 
and  gave  name  to  an  ancient  family  who  were  lords  of  the  manor 
of  Arncliffe  in  the  time  of  Edward  II.  The  name  may  signify  the 
village  of  the  hawk,  from  the  A.-S.  hauoc,  a  hawk,  although  I  incline  to 
the  opinion  that  the  true  derivation  is  to  be  sought  in  the  A.-S.  heag, 
high,  German  hoch,  descriptive  of  the  elevated  character  of  the  site. 

A  grand  walk  into  Littondale,  and  I  know  of  no  finer  approach 
to  the  romantic  upper  portion  of  it,  is  from  Raysgill  over  the  Horse 
Head  pass  to  Halton  Gill.  This  route  though  lonely  is  wild  and 
picturesque.  A  wealth  of  mountain,  forest-haunt  and  fell  surrounds 
you  wide  and  far,  while  the  bold  crown  of  Penyghent  looms  up  with 
particularly  striking  grandeur  at  one  point  of  the  route.  The 
summit  of  the  pass  is  near  2,000  feet  elevation.  Going  from  Halton 
Gill  you  pass  through  the  first  gate  on  the  right  beyond  the  village, 
and  this  direction  is  perhaps  to  be  preferred  to  the  much  steeper 
though  shorter  ascent  from  the  other  side.  In  either  case  it  can  be 
recommended  as  one  of  the  finest  mountain  walks  to  be  had 
anywhere  in  Yorkshire. 

To  those  who  like  a  brisk  mountain  ramble  I  also  commend  the 
road  from  Malham  across  the  high  moors  to  Arncliffe  (ten  miles),  a 
route  familiar  enough  to  the  Rev.  Chas.  Kingsley,  who  introduced 
much  of  the  scenery  of  this  neighbourhood  into  his  book,  the  Water 
Babies.  When  you  come  in  sight  of  Littondale  the  prospect  over  the 
valley  northwards  and  eastwards  is  extremely  grand  and  wild.  Deep 
below  you  nestles  the  charming  little  valley  of  Arncliffe,  at  the  sight 
of  which  you  will  probably  be  disposed  to  exclaim  with  Longfellow  — 

A  region  of  repose  it  seems, 
A  place  of  slumber  and  of  dreams, 
Remote  among  the  wooded  hills 
For  there  no  noisy  railway  speeds 


So-  \<>rtli 


(i&.  Vol.  1.  page  22(1. 


482 

Vet  these  poetic  aspects  of  the  scene  must  not  be  applied  too  strictly 
to  the  sturdy  and  active  inhabitants  of  this  romantic  little  valley. 
No  people  are  more  energetic  or  ready  to  keep  in  touch  with  events 
that  move  the  chords  of  the  great  outer  world.  Four  centuries  ago 
the  men  of  Littondale  sent  their  full  quota  of  stout-hearts  to  the 
ever-memorable  Field  of  Flodden,.  and  to-day,  remembering  their 
past  traditions,  they  have  been  well  to  the  fore  in  providing  the 
sinews  that  have  helped  us  to  win  the  day  in  the  Transvaal.  No 
less  a  sum  than  ^115  has  been  subscribed  in  aid  of  the  late  war  by 
the  patriotic  farmers  and  their  wives  and  sons  and  daughters  in 
Littondale,  which  comprises  the  four  small  villages  of  Hawkswick, 
Arncliffe,  Litton,  and  Halton  Gill,  together  with  a  few  scattered 
farms  around.  Such  loyalty  assuredly  finds  its  reward  in  well- 
doing, and  heartily  may  we  wish  the  inhabitants  of  this  little 
mountain  valley  happiness  in  the  future,  and  may  they  never  know 
a  "  rainy-day  !  " 

"  Rainy-day,"  however,  must  not  be  accepted  too  literally,  for 
the  weather  in  this  wild  fell-land  is  often  something  to  be  remembered. 
There  are,  to  be  sure,  long  spells  of  sunshine  and  bright  skies,  but  at 
certain  times  of  the  year  the  rain,  the  rain  it  never  ceaseth,  and  sad 
is  the  fate  of  the  hapless  visitor  who  is  house-bound  perhaps  for  a 
week  together.  May,  June,  and  September  are  the  finest  of  the 
holiday  months  ;  July  and  August  the  wettest.  Mr.  John  Hopkinson, 
F.R..Met.S.,  &c.,  whose  Tables  of  Rainfall  in  Wharfedale  appear  on 
pages  22-23,  informs  me  that  heavy  falls  of  rain  are  of  frequent 
occurrence  at  Arncliffe,  there  not  having  been  a  single  year  without 
several  falls  exceeding  one  inch  in  the  24  hours  ending  9  a.m.  Such 
falls  have  occurred  in  188  out  of  the  396  months  comprised  in  the  33 
years,  1866  to  1898.  They  have  been  most  frequent  in  March  and 
December.  The  greatest  fall  of  rain  in  24  hours  in  any  month  within 
this  period  has  exceeded  two  inches  once  in  February,  March,  and 
July ,  twice  in  August,  October,  and  December ,  three  times  in 
January,  and  five  times  in  November.  Such  falls  include  the 
following  exceeding  two-and-a-half  inches: — 1868,  March  4th,  2^85; 
1880,  Nov.  i3th,  2'55  ,  1884,  Jan.  22nd,  2-55  ,  1892,  Oct.  i4th,  2*59  , 
1895,  Jmv  25tn>  2'66  ,  1897,  Aug.  5th,  2*75  inches. 

In  spite  of  this  heavy  rainfall  the  climate  may  be  considered 
dry  and  bracing,  as  owing  to  the  porous  nature  of  the  surface 
rocks  the  moisture  is  soon  absorbed,  and  indeed,  after  a  short 
few  weeks'  of  hot  sunny  weather,  the  pastures  become  quite  blighted 
and  browned.  Those  who  have  experienced  the  heat  of  a  dry 
season  in  this  locality  know  what  it  is  to  have  their  "jackets 
warmed,"  while  the  pure  northern  air  and  open  character  of  the 
country  are  alike  conducive  to  extremes  of  heat  and  cold.  Mr. 
Hopkinson  has  also  furnished  me  with  the  following  extreme  shade 
temperatures  which  have  occurred  at  Arncliffe  in  the  twenty-six 
years,  1867  to  1892: — 


. \MOYK  cjo.       i8<xi,   Alii;.    j()lh,   c)i    ;    1*70  July   J.v  d  <M   I    '878  July  Jjnd  i>^  ;    1887,    June 

1 8(1)  ijj 
Hi  -low  i)  .       1870.   Dec.  ;,ist  4  ;    i,S74  Dec.   -,i-(  j  ;    i,S8i  Jan.  ->5th  ->  . 

The  district  has  produced  many  instances  of  longevity,*  not  the 
least  interesting  are  those  of  recent  vicars.  In  the  space  of  nearly 
a  century  there  have  been  but  three  vicars  of  the  parish,  namely, 
the  Rev.  Eardley  Norton,  M.A.,  instituted  in  1809,  the  Rev.  William 
Boyd,  M.A..  instituted  in  1835,  and  the  Rev.  W.  A.  Shuffrey,  M.A.. 
instituted  in  1893,  the  present  esteemed  vicar.  Canon  Boyd  was 
Archdeacon  of  Craven  from  1880  to  1890,  when  advancing  years  and 
distance  from  a  railway  station  obliged  him  to  resign.  He  was 
vicar  of  Arncliffe  for  the  long  period  of  fifty-seven  years,  and  in  tin- 
book  which  he  wrote  on  I.ittondale,  conjointly  with  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Shuffrey,  who  at  that  time  was  incumbent  of  Halton  Gill,  he  recites 
some  amusing  experiences  of  his  journey  from  Newcastle  to  Ripon 
in  the  "  Highflyer,"  and  how  after  considerable  trouble  and  enquiry 
he  reached  the  remote  vicarage  "in  the  middle  of  a  field/'  It  was 
not  easy,  however,  to  judge  of  its  accommodation,  he  tells  us,  for 
part  of  it  was  filled  with  wool  belonging  to  the  principal  farmer,  and 
another  part  was  used  as  the  "poor-house/'  and  the  good  vicar  had 
to  wait  sometime  outside  until  Betty  Simpson,  who  was  off  "sticking," 
returned  with  the  key  in  her  pocket. 

The  memory  of  the  venerable  Archdeacon  will  always  be 
cherished  with  particular  regard  as  well  in  the  parish  where  he  so 
long  laboured  as  in  the  wide  sphere  of  his  ministerial  activities  as 
Archdeacon  of  Craven.  He  had  a  genial  disposition,  having  a  great 
many  friends,  anil  he  was  charitable  to  a  fault  ,  among  his  numerous 
benefactions  being  the  gift  of  ^1000  to  the  living  of  Arncliffe.  He 
died  July  i  8th,  1893,  aged  84,  leaving  two  surviving  sons,  Mr.  Wm. 
Boyd,  of  Newcastle,  managing  director  of  a  large  and  well-known 
firm  of  engineers,  and  the  Rev.  Venerable  ('.  Boyd,  Archdeacon  of 
Col  umbo. 

Happily  he  has  been  followed  at  Arncliffe  by  a  gentleman  equally 
disposed  to  charity  in  the  cause  of  His  people.  Few  clergymen  have 
worked  more  zealously  in  the  public  weal  than  has  Mr.  Shuffrey 
during  the  few  years  of  his  vicariate.  He  is  an  untiring  worker  in 
many  directions,  and  seems  never  to  weary  in  well-doing.  He  has 
quite  recently,  I  believe,  offered  to  pay  half  the  amount  which  may 
fall  upon  the  guarantors  in  respect  to  the  establishment  of  telegraphic 
communication  with  Arncliffe.  During  his  leisure  he  has  acquired 
considerable  proficiency  in  botany,  which  has  enabled  him  to  benefit 
Yorkshire  science  by  his  discoveries  in  the  rich  and  varied  flora  of 
this  romantic  upland  valley.  The  flora  of  Littondale,  he  tells  us,  i> 
perhaps  as  rich  as  any  in  England,  when  it  is  considered  that  the 

*   Mrs.  Preston   <>t   (In-  ( 'ullage,  Litton,  died   in    March,   1900,  aged  91.      Shi-  was    I 
believe,  tin-  nlik-st  inhabitant  in  Littondale,  and  was  much  respected  in  the  district. 


entire  area  is  only  eight  miles  in  length  and  about  three  miles  in 
width.  Ten  years  ago  he  presented  the  present  writer  with  a  list  of 
all  the  flowering  plants  and  ferns  which  he  had  found  growing  wild 
in  the  little  dale,  and  these  number  upwards  of  300,  and  include 
many  choice  species  and  rarities.  Perhaps  the  most  interesting 
plant  of  the  locality  is  the  pretty  mountain  avens  (Dryas  octopetala), 
which  flowers  in  some  profusion  on  the  heights  some  distance  from 
Arncliffe,  and  singularly  has  been  found  nowhere  else  in  West 
Yorkshire.  It  is  an  Alpine,  and  probably  a  relic  of  the  great  Ice 
Age,  when  glaciers  overspread  the  whole  of  the  North  of  England 
and  Northern  Europe.  The  plant  occurs  on  the  mountains  of 
Norway,  and  I  have  obtained  luxuriant  examples  of  it  from 
Switzerland.  Another  noteworthy  plant  in  the  vicinity  of  Arncliffe 
is  the  Antennaria  dioica,  or  pearly-everlasting,  a  close  ally  of  the 
edelweiss,  the  national  flower  of  the  Swiss. 

The  church  of  St.  Oswald  at  Arncliffe  is  a  Norman  foundation, 
but  has  undergone  so  much  rebuilding  and  reparation  that  little 
remains  to  bespeak  its  antiquity.  The  chancel  was  wholly  rebuilt  in 
1843.  It  contains  memorials  to  the  families  of  Tennant,  Foster, 
Dawson  of  Halton  Gill,  Myers  of  Darnbrook,  &c.  A  beautiful 
stained  window  was  also  inserted  a  few  years  ago  in  the  south  wall 
of  the  chancel  to  the  memory  of  the  late  Archdeacon  Boyd,  and  the 
beautiful  oak  screen  is  also  a  memorial  to  him. 

Some  four  miles  beyond  Arncliffe  is  the  wide  and  romantic 
chapelry  of  Halton  Gill,  with  the  records  of  its  ancient  water-mill  and 
remote  little  hamlets  of  Heselden  and  Foxup,  once  parcel  of  the 
possessions  of  Fountains  Abbey.  The  chapel  of  St.  John  the  Baptist 
is  mentioned  by  Harrison  as  standing  in  1577.  It  was  re-erected  in 
the  time  of  Charles  I.,  and  again  rebuilt  in  1848  at  a  cost  of  nearly 
^500.  A  churchyard  was  then  added.  It  is  a  quiet,  beautiful 
place,  surrounded  by  lofty  and  far-reaching  moors  and  shepherded 
hills,  promiment  among  which  is  the  gaunt  outline  of  Fountains  Fell, 
Coska  Moor,  and  Penyghent.  A  wild  mountain  road  leaves  the 
main  valley  at  Halton  Gill  Bridge  for  Settle,  ten  miles,  and  goes  over 
high  ground  (1,400  feet)  between  Penyghent  and  Fountains  Fell, 
passing  the  solitary  Penyghent  House,  near  which  are  the  famous 
mounds  known  as  the  Giants'  Graves.  Legend  and  story  cling  about 
these  secluded  ravines  and  mountain  valleys,  one  of  the  best  known 
being  that  of  the  "  Wise  Woman  of  Littondale,"  an  aged  hag  who,  if 
report  be  true,  wrought  some  marvellous  incantations.  She  was  a 
familiar  figure  in  the  dale,  and  used  often  to  come  into  Kettlewell, 
but  young  men  and  women  would  jump  over  the  nearest  wall  if  they 
saw  her  coming,  so  afraid  were  they  to  meet  her  piercing  haggard 
eye.  Some  of  her  divinings  are  recounted  at  length  in  Henderson's 
Folk  Lore  of  the  Northern  Counties. 


CHAPTER    XLIV. 


UP  DALE  FROM  KETTLEWELL  TO  BUCKDEN. 

Picturesque  scenery— The  village  ot  Starbottoni  Meaning  of  the  name— A  historic 
Hood— Old  houses  at  Starbottom— Buckden  Woods  Local  field-names— At  the 
dale-head  —First  records  of  Buckden  Wild  doer  -Manorial  owners  Buckden  Hall 
— Antiquity  of  manor-house — The  family  of  Buckden  The  village — Church  and 
Wesleyan  Chapel— The  Friends— Wild  scenery— A  haunt  of  the  marten— Cray. 

"  HEN  the  hot  sun  shines  on  limestone  fell  and  scar,  the 
white  road  up  the  dale  will  gladly  be  exchanged  foi 
the  pleasanter  path  through  the  grassy  meads  skirting 
the  west  bank  of  the  river.  As  we  ascend  the  valley 
by  this  path  a  wealth  of  foliage  forms  a  grand 
foreground  to  the  vista  backed  by  the  towering  range  of  the  Stake. 
At  two  miles  from  Kettlewell  we  cross  the  bridge  over  the  Wharfe 
opposite  the  village  of  Starbottom,  which  lies  snugly  esconced  at  the 
foot  of  Cam  Gill,  a  winding  precipitous  gully  down  which  the  oft- 
turbulent  Cam  Beck  descends  from  the  bleak  heights  above. 

This  little  village  of  Starbottoni  or  Stanerbotton,  als  Stanerbot 
as  it  is  frequently  spelled  in  old  documents,  appears  in  Domesday 
under  the  horribly-distorted  name  of  Stamphotne.  As  the  whole  of 
Upper  Wharfedale  appears  to  have  been  colonized  by  the  Viking 
invaders  in  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  it  is  quite  possible  the 
name  is  derived  from  the  Norse  ster,  a  place  or  settlement,  and  botn, 
the  head  of  a  dale.*  But  if  local  pronunciation  is  to  be  set  aside 
and  ancient  writings  are  to  be  our  guide,  the  root  of  the  word  is  in 
the  Anglo-Saxon  sfati,  a  stone,  v.  sftinig,  stony,  and  bbtm,  a  bottom,  in 
allusion  to  the  no  doubt  originally  very  stony  character  of  the  place 
at  this  time. 

Never  perhaps  within  recent  centuries  has  the  locality  been 
better  entitled  to  the  description  of  "stony  bottom"  than  after  the 
historic  flood  mentioned  in  all  our  annals  as  having  ruined  this 
prosperous  dale-village  in  the  year  1686.  The  loss  suffered  by  the 
inhabitants  of  this  township,  which  is  in  the  ancient  parish  of 
Kettlewell,  amounted  to  no  less  a  sum  than  .^3000.  The  records 
state  that  on  the  8th  of  June  there  happened  "an  earthquake  and  a 
violent  and  dreadful  tempest  of  thunder,  hail  and  rain  which 
descended  so  violently  from  the  mountains  and  out  of  the  caverns 
that  it  immediately  overran  and  tore  up  the  banks  of  the  rivers 

*  See  also  Lucas1  .Studies  in  ffidderdale,  p.  93.  In  the  MS.  Compotus  of  Francis 
Earl  of  Cumberland  (1610),  I  find  the  name  written  very'nearly  in  the  old  Norse  way 
Sterbotten, 


486 

running  through  ye  tonnes  of  Kettlewell  and  Starbotton,  when  100 
acres  of  good  land  were  washed  away  and  TOO  acres  covered  with 
stones  and  gravel.  The  ancient  streams  were  diverted  and  several 
bridges  were  driven  down  and  overwhelmed,  and  many  houses 
destroyed."  Petitions  were  ordered  to  be  issued  and  collections  made 
throughout  England  in  aid  of  the  sufferers.  Places  far  away  from 
Yorkshire  contributed.  The  parish  registers  of  Trumpington  in 
Cambridgeshire  shew  an  entry  of  4*.  4d.  "for  loss  by  an  earthquake 
at  Kettlewell,  Yorkshire."  In  the  Leathley  parish  accounts  which  I 
have  quoted  on  page  122,  I  find  also  this  entry: 

Collected  in  ye  Parish  Church  of  Leathley  ye  eleaventh  day  of  —  — ,  1687,  by 
vertue  of  his  Majties  Letters  Patent  for  and  towards  —  —  of  ye  poore  and  distressed 
Inhabitants  of  Kettlewell  and  Starbotton  in  ye  —  —  of  Yorke,  who  suffered  by  a 

dreadful  inundation  of  water,  ye  summ  of  nine  shilling's  and  foure  pence,  resting  in  ye 
hands  of  Quintine  Reynolds  and  Henry  Bake,  Churchwardens,  who  are  to  pay  ye  same 
to  Mr.  Ralph  Malkin,  sub-collector  and  to  take  an  acquittance  for  ye  same. 

Not  all  the  houses  were  washed  away,  although  some  of  them 
we  are  told  were  filled  with  gravel  to  the  chamber-windows.  Many 
however,  would  appear  to  have  succumbed.  I  have  noted  a  few 
bearing  dates  previous  to  this  great  flood.  One  of  these  is  inscribed 
W.F.  1656,  another  T.S.  1665.  and  a  third  bears  the  date  1664. 

Continuing  our  walk  from  Starbottom  by  the  fields  towards 
Buckden,  the  scenery  becomes  ever  more  grandly-wild  and  beautiful. 
The  extensive  woods  belonging  to  the  Crompton-Stansfield  family  add 
in  no  small  degree  to  the  picturesqueness  of  the  surroundings  and 
help  to  relieve  the  barrenness  of  the  overhanging  hills.  The  district 
has  also  yielded  some  interesting  wild  plants,  including  the  curious 
and  now  rare  Lady's-slipper  orchid.  The  field-names  round  about 
seem  to  be  all  modern.  But  on  the  fell-side  near  Buckden  there  is 
a  piece  of  land  called  Willy  Close,  which  before  it  was  enclosed  was 
probably  known  by  the  single  name  of  "Willy."  In  other  parts  of 
Yorkshire  we  meet  with  the  same  name  applied  to  certain  hills  and 
eminences,  as  Willy  How,  Brown  Willy,  &c.* 

Buckden  is  the  farthest  village  in  the  dale  to  which  the  daily 
mail  and  coaches  run  from  Skipton,  being  nineteen  miles  from  that 
town,  and  via  which  all  letters  to  and  above  Grassington  are  now 
directed.  Beyond  this  point  the  contracted  valley  runs  westward 
through  lonely  Langstrothdale,  while  all  around  rise  the  hills  and 
passes  that  connect  the  dale-head  with  Bishopdale,  Raydale, 
Littondale,  and  the  romantic  valley  of  the  Upper  Yore.  The  village 
stands  at  the  foot  of  the  great  sweep  of  fells  that  runs  up  to  Buckden 
Pike  (2302  feet),  the  crowning  point  of  the  range.f  The  Pike  may 

*  See  the  author's  note  on  "William's  Hill,"  in  Romantic  Richniondshire,  p.  292. 

f  The  Rev.  J.  E.  Morris  thinks  this  word  "  Pike"  may  be  the  same  as  the  Pyrenean 
"Pic."  In  Cumberland  there  are  the  two  Red  Pikes,  in  Westmorland  there  is  Kidsty 
Pike,  while  in  Malhamdale,  Craven,  we  have-  Piked  Haw. 


487 

.  x-ended  from  Buckden,  though  it  is  a  long  and  steep  climb,  but 
one  that  is  amply  rewarded  by  a  view  of  almost  unrivalled  extent  and 
magnificence.  With  the  aid  of  a  map  and  reliable  compass  almost 
every  hill  and  prominent  feature  of  the  view  may  be  determined. 
The  best  time  to  make  the  ascent  is  about  an  hour  before  sunset, 
and  if  the  evening  be  clear  the  light  reflected  by  the  declining  sun 
over  far-reaching  moor  and  mountain  is  grand  in  the  extreme. 
Mr.  W.  Denison  Roebuck,  F.L.S.,  furnishes  a  short  but  interesting 
sketch  of  the  molluscan  fauna  of  the  Pike  in  the  Naturalist  for  1889, 
and  remarks  that  at  2010  feet  "we  found  our  last  mollusc,  Arion  ater, 
crawling  on  the  coarse  grass." 

Buckden  is  not  mentioned  in  Domesday,  and  first  appears  by 
name  in  the  attestation  of  one  Henry  de  Buckedune  to  a  charter  of 
Peter  de  Arches  granting  the  manor  of  Arnford  to  Uchtred  fil  Ketel 
de  Hartlington  in  the  time  of  Henry  I.  The  name  of  Adam  de 
Bukdene  also  appears  in  a  charter  of  Peter  de  Arches  granting  a 
bovate  of  land  in  his  demesne  to  Bolton  Priory.  There  is  little 
doubt  that  the  name  is  to  be  traced  to  the  Tent,  buc,  a  stag,  and  dene, 
a  valley,  as  this  secluded  locality  was  above  all  others  in  Craven  a 
favoured  haunt  of  the  buck  and  wild-deer  down  to  a  late  period. 
Leland,  the  King's  antiquary,  who  travelled  through  Yorkshire  shortly 
before  the  dissolution  of  monasteries,  says  of  the  adjacent  Bishopdale: 
"Bishop's  Dale  longeth  to  the  King,  and  yn  the  Hilles  about  be 
Redde  Deer.  In  faire  winters  the  Deere  keepe  there,  in  shrap 
winters  they  forsake  the  extreme  cold  and  barennes  of  them."  The 
annals  of  the  House  of  Clifford  contain  numerous  notices  of  the 
hunting,  slaying,  and  poaching  of  deer  among  these  hills  down  to  the 
time  of  the  Lady  Anne  Clifford  in  the  i7th  century.  (.SVr  also  p.  426.) 
The  manor  of  Buckden,  together  with  that  of  a  moiety  of  the 
manor  of  Hartlington,  belonged  to  the  Hebers  of  Marlon,  and  in  the 
early  part  of  this  century  was  purchased  by  the  family  of  Sir  John 
Ramsden,  who  with  Lady  Isabella  Ramsden  resided  at  the  Hall. 
The  estates  were  subsequently  purchased  by  the  late  Col.  Stansfield, 
of  Esholt,  with  whose  descendants  they  still  remain.  The  Hall  is  a 
large  Georgian  building  of  three  stories,  erected  on  the  site  of  a 
former  mansion  or  manor-house  that  may  have  existed  perhaps  from 
the  time  when  the  ancient  family  of  Buckden  were  resident  here,  and 
took  their  name  from  the  place.  But  the  original  manor-house  is 
believed  by  some  not  to  have  occupied  the  site  of  the  present  Hall, 
and  stood  where  is  an  old  house  having  a  low  building  at  the  east  end 
situated  on  the  Hubberholme  road.  In  feudal  times  the  manor  was 
in  moities,  one  half  being  held  by  Elias  de  Knoll  of  the  heirs  of 
Percy,  and  the  other  half  by  Elias  de  Bukeden  by  the  service  only  of 
finding  four  foresters  in  Langstrothdale.*  Large  game  must  at  that 
time  have  been  plentiful  in  this  secluded  valley. 

*  See  also   Ym-kslnrf  AVr,   S</-.,  vol.  xvii.,  page  63. 


488 

The  district  is  much  visited  in  the  tourist  season,  and  at 
Buckden  there  is  a  good  inn,  besides  inns  at  Hubberholme  and 
Cray.  Opposite  the  Buck  inn  stood  the  village  stocks,  and  old  John 
Chapman  tells  me  he  remembers  seeing  men  relegated  to  temporary 
punishment  in  them  sixty  or  seventy  years  ago.  Old  John  is  one  of 
the  Dale  patriarchs  and  there  are  very  few  men  or  women  in  England, 
now  living  in  this  year  of  grace  1900,  who  can  say  with  him  that 
they  have  never  heard  a  railway  whistle  or  seen  the  steam-horse  since 
their  mother's  lullaby  sounded  in  their  infant  ears.  The  native 
dalesfolk  are  an  honest,  God-fearing,  unsophisticated  race,  and  down 
to  quite  recent  times  retained  customs,  manners,  and  even  speech,  but 
little  altered  by  the  roll  of  centuries. 


WESLEYAN   CHAPEL,  BUCKDEN. 

Local  church-folk  attend  the  quaint  old  place  of  worship  at 
Hubberholme,  and  there  is  also  a  small  Wesleyan  Chapel,  originally 
erected  early  this  century,  standing  picturesquely  beneath  a  wide 
range  of  stone-fenced  hills.  It  is  the  most  northern  chapel  in 
the  Grassington  Circuit.  Formerly  the  Friends  were  a  pretty  strong 
body  in  the  upper  part  of  Wharfedale,  as  they  were  in  the 
neighbouring  valleys  of  Raydale  and  Wensleydale.  In  the  days  of 
religious  persecutions  the  Quakers  were  sad  sufferers,  and  I  find  that 
at  the  Assizes  held  at  York,  Feb.  2nd,  1663-4,  one  Anthony  Knowles, 


489 

of  an  old  Buckden  family  (probably  I!I-M  ended  from  tin-  Knolls  who 
were  lords  of  Buckden  in  Xorman  centuries),  confessed  to  a  meeting 
of  Quakt-rs  at  his  house  in  Buckden,  and  to  being  at  another  at  the 
house  of  (leorge  Wilson,  of  Cray.  He  pleaded  in  extenuation  of  the 
offence, — and  a  righteous  pleading  it  was  surely, — that  their  meetings 
had  but  one  object,  namely  "  to  serve  and  s^ek  the  Lord."  Their 
old  burial-ground  at  Scarr  House,  a  mile  above  Hubberholme,  has 
not  been,  I  believe,  interred  in  these  thirty  years  or  more.  The 
Friends  had  also  an  old  burial-ground  at  Starbotton,  which  has 
lately  been  added  to  an  old  estate  there  of  the  Woodd  family. 


HUBBERHOLME   CHURCH. 

The  district,  as  observed,  abounds  in  wild  and  beautiful  scenery 
and  is  well  known  as  one  of  the  last  haunts  of  that  adroit  little 
animal  the  brown-martin  ( M.  sj'/jrs/r/s ),  not  uncommon  still  among 
the  remote  pine-forests  of  America  and  Norway,  but  now  extremely 
rare  in  Britain.  Messrs.  Clarke  and  Roebuck  record  the  last  capture 
of  a  marten  in  Yorkshire  as  having  been  made  at  Buckden  in 
Wharfedale  in  the  winter  of  1880. 

Visitors  to  this  district  should  not  omit  a  visit  to  the  romantic 
neighbourhood  of  Cray,  where  are  some  fine  waterfalls.  The  earliest 
reference  to  Cray  which  I  have  found  occurs  in  a  fine  dated  at 
Doncaster  4th  John  (1202),  by  which  Matilda,  Countess  of  Warwick, 
daughter  and  heiress  of  William  de  Percy,  quitclaims  to  William  de 
Arches  a  certain  meadow  situated  on  the  north  side  of  Werf  (Wharfe) 
at  "  Creigate."  Again  in  1241,  in  an  arrangement  between  the 


490 

Abbot  of  Fountains  and  William  de  Percy,  mention  is  made  of  an 
enclosure  upon  "  Creybecke,"  in  which  the  Abbot  and  his  successors 
had  the  liberty  of  pasture  for  their  horses.  The  name  is  doubtless 
Teutonic  and  not  British,  as  suggested  by  Dr.  Whitaker,  and  is 
probably  derived  from  the  Teut.  creg,  creca,  a  small  inlet,  in  allusion 
perhaps  to  the  creek-like  off-shoot  of  the  dale  and  beck  above 
Buckden.  Creeklade  is  the  A.-S.  Cregldd,  and  Crcacanford  is  Crayford 
in  Kent.  According  to  Dr.  Murray  a  creek  may  not  only  mean  an 
arm  of  the  sea,  but  an  inlet,  or  short  arm  of  a  river  (America  and 
Colonial),  or  a  narrow  corner  of  land  running  out  from  a  main  area  , 
a  narrow  plain  or  recess  running  in  between  mountains.  Isaac 
Walton  uses  the  word  as  applied  to  a  river,  and  Goldsmith  says  that 
lesser  streams  and  rivulets  are  denominated  creeks.  Compare  also 
the  Welsh  cttgyll,  a  ravine,  or  creek. 

From  Cray  the  walk  may  be  continued  over  the  Stak'e  and 
through  lonely  Bishopdale  to  Aysgarth,  where  are,  according  to 
many  ideas,  the  finest  river-falls  in  England. 


I 
o 

DC 

ID 
I 

O 


CHAPTER    XL V 


IN   WILD    LANGSTROTHDALE. 

Kxleni  of  Buckden  township  "I'lie  Korest  of  Langstroth  owned  by  the  Percys  and 
Cliffords  The  chapelry  of  Hubberholme — Viking  invasion — Antiquity  of 
Hubberholme  Church — Description  of  interior—An  ancient  rood-loft — The  Heber 
family  and  the  new  parsonage— A  walk  up  the  dale— Poor's  Pasture — Extermination 
of  wild  animals  —Lodges  in  the  forest  of  Langstroth— Local  possessions  of  Fountains 
Abbey— Monastic  cattle-folds— Raysgill— Beckermonds — The  Lodge  family- 
Oughtershaw  and  the  Woodds— Local  enterprise— A  wealth  of  wild  Uowers— 
Discovery  <>f  coins  Romantic  scenery — At  the  source  of  the  Wharfe— Conclusion. 

township  of  Buckden  reaches  far  up  Langstrothdale 
and  includes  the  retired  little  hamlets  of  Cray, 
Deepdale,  Vockenthwaite,  Oughtershaw  and  Becker- 
monds, in  fact  all  the  places  and  territory  embraced  by 
the  old  Forest  of  Langstroth  within  the  ancient  parish 
of  Arncliffe.  The  whole  of  the  manorial  rights  rested  with  the 
Percys  until  by  the  marriage  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  of  Margaret, 
daughter  of  the  sixth  Earl  of  Northumberland,  with  Henry,  Lord 
Clifford,  first  Earl  of  Cumberland,  when  they  descended  to  the 
Cliffords  and  through  them  to  the  noble  House  of  Cavendish.  The 
Fountains  Abbey  lands  in  Littondale  and  Langstrothdale  were  also 
purchased  by  the  same  family,  so  that  the  Cliffords  became  and 
continued  for  some  time  after  the  dissolution  of  monasteries  lords  of 
a  very  wide  domain  in  Upper  Wharfedale.  The  extravagances  of 
Earl  George,  however,  led  to  some  dispersion  of  the  estates,  and  in 
1604  Heselden  was  sold  for  about  ^noo,  and  Greenfield,  where  the 
Forest  of  Langstroth  commences,  afterwards  passed  to  the  Hebers  of 
Marton.  Subsequently  many  of  the  dalesfolk  purchased  their  own 
farms. 

Hubberholme  is  a  perpetual  curacy  in  the  old  parish  of  Arncliffe, 
and  in  the  Parliamentary  Survey  it  is  recommended  tc  be  made  a 
separate  parish.  The  chapelry,  which  includes  Hawkswick,  embraces 
an  area  of  more  than  16,000  acres,  and  is  one  of  the  wildest  and 
least  populated  parishes  of  its  extent  in  England.  In  Domesday  it 
appears  as  Huburgheha,'  though  this  seems  to  be  a  corruption  of  the 
name  which  is  subsequently  written  Hubberholm,  Hubberham,  and 
the  like,  and  locally  pronounced  Hub'ram.  It  may  possibly  have 
been  named  in  compliment  to  the  great  Viking  prince  Hubba,  who 


492 

with  his  brothers  Halfden  and  Ivar,  succeeded  in  wresting 
Northumbria  from  the  English. 

There  are  not  wanting  evidences  of  the  occupation  of  the  district 
by  these  undaunted  pirates,  who  fell  with  savage  determination  on 
north-west  England,  butchering  the  people,  seizing  their  goods,  and 
destroying  every  Christian  church  and  belonging  they  could  lay  hands 
upon.  Numbers  of  iron  arrow-heads,  most  probably  of  this  period, 
have  been  unearthed  chiefly  through  the  operations  of  moles,  in  parts 
of  Langstrothdale  (mostly  about  Beckermonds),  and  a  single  coin  of 
Archbishop  Wimund  (A.D.  832-854)  was  dug  up  in  the  Vicarage  grounds 
at  Arncliffe.  I  have  mentioned  on  page  270  that  the  succeeding 
Archbishop  Wulfhere  was  obliged  to  take  refuge  in  Wharfedale  on  the 
Viking  occupation  of  York  in  870.*  From  York  a  portion  of  the  army 
marched  into  Lincolnshire  and  there  aided  by  the  Viking  forces  under 
the  leaders  Guthrum,  Halfden,  and  Hamond,  wrought  shocking  havoc 
in  that  territory ,  not  a  monastery  or  a  church  being  left  standing. 

Small  Christian  temples  are  not  unlikely  to  have  existed  both  at 
Arncliffe  and  Hubberholme  at  this  period,  although  neither  stone  nor 
trace  of  any  such  foundations  have  been  preserved.  There  was 
indeed  little  church  building  between  the  settlement  and  conversion 
of  the  Vikings  in  Yorkshire  and  the  Norman  Conquest  in  1066,  and 
therefore  our  knowledge  regarding  the  origin  of  the  church  at 
Hubberholme  is  largely  conjectural.  The  first  church  of  which  we 
possess  any  record  appears  to  have  been  dedicated  to  St.  Leonard;  the 
present  fabric,  however,  has  long  borne  the  dedication  to  St.  Michael. 

The  church  interior  is  one  of  the  quaintest  and  most  remarkable 
to  be  found  in  Yorkshire,  and  has  been  admirably  portrayed  in  the 
painting  by  Lobley,  reproduced  in  full  page  in  the  quarto  edition  of 
this  work.  The  masonry  of  the  walls  and  some  of  the  arches  is 
extremely  crude.  The  latter  are  round  and  built  of  roughly-dressed 
stones  resting  upon  rude  octagonal  pillars  having  plain  abaci. 
Three  of  the  westernmost  arches  of  the  north  aisle  are  pointed  and 
supported  by  octagonal  columns,  while  the  eastern  or  choir  arch  is 
more  depressed  and  of  wide  span ;  the  thrust  being  sustained  by  a 
massive  buttress  from  the  east  side.  The  bulk  of  the  church  is 
obviously  of  the  early  part  of  the  i6th  century,  and  is  mentioned  in 
the  accounts  of  Henry,  Earl  Percy  for  1502.  The  window  spaces  are 
wide  and  have  characteristic  depressed  heads.  The  wide,  depressed 
east  end  of  the  church  is  also  noteworthy. 

*  The  Vikings  entered  York  in  867  and  Hubba  became  Governor;  the  Dane 
Gudram  acting  as  his  resident  deputy.  The  ancient  thoroug-hfare  in  York  called 
Goodramgate  is  traditionally  believed  to  mark  the  site  of  his  house.  Halfden  became 
King  of  Northumbria  in  875  and  coins  of  his  reign  were  found  in  1840,  among  a  hoard 
of  7,000  others  at  Cuerdale,  in  Lancashire.  He  is  said  to  have  ravaged  and  plundered 
the  whole  of  Strathclyde  from  the  Mersey  to  the  Clyde,  traversing  our  western  dales 
and,  heathen  as  he  was,  destroying  every  object  of  Christian  veneration.  He  died  after 
two  years  of  tyrannical  sovereignty  in  877. 


493 

P.ut  the  most  striking  feature  of  the  interesting  interior,  happily 
retained,  is  an  original  rood-loft  separating  the  choir  from  the 
body  of  the  church.  There  is  no  chancel-arch.  The  loft  however 
bearing  the  holy  rood,  takes  its  place  in  the  position  sanctioned  by 
the  ancient  Church  as  typifying  transition  through  death,  the  joining 
of  the  body  militant  with  the  body  spiritual.  For  all  who  will  pass  out 
of  the  former  into  the  latter,  must  be  acquainted  with  affliction,  they 
must  walk  in  the  shadow  of  the  Cross  and  pass  through  the  portal  of 
Death  to  the  altar-throne  in  the  Holy  of  Holies  where  is  Life 
everlasting.  Few  of  these  symbolical  erections  remain  in  England, 
nor  are  any,  I  believe,  known  to  be  of  an  earlier  date  than  the 
1 5th  century.  The  Hubberholme  rood-loft  is  therefore  of  very 
special  interest  and  fortunately  retains  its  original  character  almost 
entire.  The  ancient  rood,  or  image  of  Christ  on  the  Cross,  has 
however,  disappeared,  and  in  its  place  is  the  present  plain  Cross, 
erected  about  forty  years  ago.  The  usual  images  of  John  and  Mary 
are  likewise  absent,  but  their  positions  on  each  side  of  the  Cross  are 
indicated  by  the  mortice-holes  still  apparent  in  the  beam.  The 
length  of  the  screen  measured  from  the  extremities  of  the  supporting 
jambs  is  18  feet,  and  the  width  is  about  6  feet.  The  loft  is  open  at 
the  north  end  on  the  east  or  choir  side,  and  has  evidently  been 
entered  by  a  movable  stair  or  ladder.  The  east  face  of  the  loft 
consists  of  thirteen  arched  panels  filled  with  Gothic  tracery,  and  the 
support  bears  a  running  pattern  in  black  with  a  band  below  painted 
in  its  original  color,  red.  The  open  floor  consists  of  stout  oaken 
balks  ;  their  under  surfaces  presenting  roughly-hewn  surfaces  from 
the  tree.  On  the  south  jamb,  beneath  the  loft  is  cut  the  Percy 
badge,  a  fetterlock  within  the  horns  of  a  crescent,  and  upon  the 
north  jamb  is  an  annulet.  They  are  repeated  on  the  west  front, 
together  with  the  following  inscription  : 

Hno  Dom  irvcmil  hoc  opus  crat  Willmi  Jake  carpet'. 
Whitaker  gives  the  date  as  "  MCCCCCLVIII,"  but  the  second  and 
third  letters  appear  to  me  to  be  a  rude  form  of  "  VC,"  which  like 
the  inscription  over  the  tower  entrance  at  IJolton  Abbey  is  intended 
to  indicate  five  hundred,  the  whole  date  being  one  thousand  live 
hundred  and  fifty-eight.  This  was  the  year  when  Queen  Mary  died 
and  the  Protestant  Elizabeth  ascended  the  throne,  and  the  use  of 
such  objects  was  prohibited. 

Garlands  of  flowers  &c.  such  as  I  have  described  on  page  400, 
have  been  hung  upon  this  old  rood-loft  within  living  recollection. 
The  custom  which  so  long  survived  in  Upper  Wharfedale  in  all 
probability  originated  in  far-off  Saxon  times,  while  in  the  Eastern 
Church  the  same  practice  was  also  prevalent.  At  weddings  and 
funerals  flowers  were  brought  to  the  church,  or  even  kept  in  the 
church  for  the  purpose  of  crowning  the  bride  and  bridegroom,  or 
strewing  the  bier  of  the  deceased.  Chaucer,  whom  many  think 


494 

derived  his  two  scholars  of  Strother  in  the  Canterbury  Tales  from 
Langstrothdale,  alludes  to  the  custom  in  his  Clerk  of  Oxenford's  Tale 
when  he  says  :  "  A  coronne  on  hire  hed  they  han  y-dressed." 

The  font  in  the  church  is  septangular  and  bears  upon  four  of 
the  seven  sides  carvings  of  the  fleur-de-lis,  the  couped  head  of  some 
animal  (?  the  boar  badge  of  Neville),  and  two  human  heads  (male 
and  female)  occupy  the  others ,  all  being  rudely  sculptured.  Henry 
Percy,  second  Earl  of  Northumberland,  who  died  in  1455,  married 
the  Lady  Eleanor,  daughter  of  Ralph  Neville,  first  Earl  of 
Westmorland,  by  whom  he  had  nine  sons  and  three  daughters.  I 
may  observe  that  in  heraldry  the  marks  of  cadency  during  the  life- 
time of  a  father,  are  for  the  fifth  son  an  annulet  and  for  the  sixth 
son  a  fleur-de-lis.*  The  Percys  also  quartered  the  annulet  of  De  la 
Pole.  Sir  Thomas  Percy,  brother  to  the  sixth  Earl  of  Northumberland, 
took  part  in  the  Aske  rebellion  and  was  executed  at  Tyburn  in  1537, 
leaving  by  his  wife  Eleanor,  daughter  and  coheir  of  Sir  Guischard 
Harbottle,  lord  of  Dalton-Michael,  Co.  York,  two  sons  and  a 
daughter.  Both  sons  succeeded  to  the  Earldom  of  Northumberland 
and  the  daughter  married  Sir  Francis  Slingsby. 

The  church  contains  some  memorials  of  local  families,  including 
a  stained  window  in  the  south  aisle,  placed  to  the  memory  of  the 
Rev.  Wm.  Richardson  Metcalfe,  forty-seven  years  vicar  of  the  parish, 
who  died  in  1879.  Another  stained  window  in  the  north  aisle 
commemorates  Mary,  wife  of  Basil  Woodd,  who  died  in  1864,  and 
Lydia  Wilson  Woodd,  wife  of  Charles  H.  Lardner  Woodd,  who  died 
in  1856.  Near  this  window  is  a  neat  marble  tablet,  inscribed  to  the 
memory  of  the  above  Chas.  H.  L.  Woodd,  of  Oughtershaw  Hall, 
who  was  born  i8th  December,  1821,  and  died  i5th  December,  1893. 
Another  memorial  tablet  in  the  choir  is  inscribed  to  John  Chas. 
Ramsden,  eldest  son  of  Sir  John  Ramsden,  who  died  29th  December, 
1836,  aged  49.  There  are  also  other  memorials  to  the  families  of 
Tennant,  Jaques,  and  Foster.  The  church  was  carefully  restored  in 
1863,  none  of  the  old  features  having  been  disturbed. 

The  situation  of  the  ancient  edifice  in  a  retired  part  of  the 
valley  is  exceedingly  picturesque ;  its  time-stained  walls  and  low- 
square  tower  being  in  admirable  harmony  with  the  surroundings. 
(See  the  plate  prefacing  this  chapter).  Not  very  far  away  stands  the 
neat  parsonage,  erected  in  1893,  being  a  restoration  of  an  old  house 
formerly  belonging  to  the  Heber  family,  of  which  family  was  the 
good  Bishop  Heber,  author  of  the  famous  missionary  hymn, 
From  Greenland's  Icy  Mountains.  (See  page  245.)  The  property  was 
purchased  from  the  late  Mr.  Richard  Heber  Wrightson,  a  descendant 

*  The  fleur-de-lis  first  appears  in  England  in  the  armorial  bearings  of  Edward  III, 
ca.  13.39,  and  continued  in  the  arms  of  England  till  1801,  when  the  Act  !of  Union  was 
passed.  The  device  appears  originally  as  a  symbol  of  the  Holy  Trinity. 


495 

<>t  the  family,  who  had  hern  a  liberal  benefactor  to  the  church,  and 
always  took  the  liveliest  interest  in  this  romantic  neighbourhood,  being 
his  ancestral  domains.  Previous  vicars  had  been  obliged  to  content 
themselves  with  the  best  lodgment  they  could  find  in  the  village, 
but  through  the  exertions  of  the  present  energetic  vicar,  the  Rev. 
Richard  F.  R.  Anderton,  a  house  has  been  provided  at  last  worthy  of 
those  entrusted  with  the  cure  of  souls.  Mr.  Anderton  has  held  the 
living,  which  is  in  the  gift  of  the  vicar  of  ArnclifTe,  now  about  twelve 
\vurs,  and  is  \vr\  popular  in  the  district.  But  his  inviting  house, 
situated  as  it  is  close  beside  the  main  road  in  the  valley,  along  which 
strangers  are  continuously  passing  to  and  fro,  may  tempt  one  to 
reflect  that  too  much  advantage  will  be  taken  of  the  large-lettered 
"  WELCOME,"  which  appears  over  the  hospitable  vicar's  door. 

Leaving  the  village,  with  its  little  "public"  (an  old  homestead 
which  for  many  years  served  for  the  parsonage),  and  memories  of  old 
Henry  Pawson,  landlord  and  parish  clerk,  whose  portrait  Mr.  Lobley 
has  faithfully  sketched  in  our  engraving,  we  take  the  road  up-dale 
towards  Raysgill  and  Oughtershaw.  It  is  a  very  beautiful  and  romantic 
walk.  Many  a  dainty  wild  flower  gems  the  way-side  and  river  banks, 
and  many  a  rant  ar/.\  flits  across  our  path  or  over-stream  to  the 
encompassing  heights  above.  On  our  way  we  pass  the  old  Poors 
Pasture,  which  has  long  been  let  annually  to  the  highest  bidder,  at 
present  it  fetches  ^9,  formerly  ^20.  Before  the  enclosure  of  the 
land,  the  rent  of  this  charity  was  derived  from  five  cattle-gaits  upon 
Kirkgill  Pasture,  two  beast-gaits  upon  Moor  Ing,  and  one  grass-garth 
and  house-stead  also  at  Kirkgill,  the  tenant  in  1840  being  Thos. 
Ibbetson,  who  had  to  repair  the  fence  and  pay  his  share  for  taking 
the  moles.  These  troublesome  little  creatures  are  extremely 
numerous  in  this  dale  and  the  neighbouring  Bishopdale,  many 
thousands  having  been  destroyed  within  recent  years.  No  doubt 
this  superabundance  of  moles  is  due  in  great  measure  to  the  balance 
of  Nature  having  been  disturbed  by  the  destruction  of  the  old 
carnivora,  such  as  the  marten,  stoat,  weasel,  and  particularly  the 
polecat  and  badger,  or  foumart,  as  locally  called,  the  latter  being  the 
greatest  enemy  to  all  the  species  of  rodents.  These  larger  animals 
have  been  all  but  totally  exterminated  in  the  dales,  while  the  lesser 
creatures  of  the  field  are  correspondingly  increasing. 

This  romantic  valley  was,  as  I  have  said,  an  old  Forest  of  the 
Percies  and  Cliffords,  and  from  a  paper  in  possession  of  Mr.  \V. 
Farrer,  of  Marton,  I  gather  that  in  1241,  William  de  Percy  had  then 
seven  lodges  for  his  foresters  in  Langstrothdale,  namely,  at  Crey, 
Huberham,  Yoghannetheit  (Yockenthwaite),  Risegile  (Raysgill), 
Depedale,  Bekersmotes  (Beckermonds),  and  Uhtredestall  (Oughter- 
shaw). Uchtredstall  seems  to  have  been  the  most  usual  form  of 
spelling  the  name  of  this  place  in  old  documents,  and  it  is  not  a  little 
surprising  how  the  evolution  to  Oughtershaw  has'  come  about. 


496 

The  monks  of  Fountains  had  lands  granted  to  them  in  this 
valley  as  early  as  the  i2th  century.  Adeliza  de  Romellf  gave  them 
the  forest  of  Langstroth  in  Allerdale  (?  Amerdale)  with  the  birds  and 
wild  beasts.  The  Percies  subsequently  gave  them  certain  pasture  for 
their  cattle  here,  and  the  above  William  de  Percy  granted  to  the 
Abbot  of  Fountains  and  his  successors  pasture  for  twenty  brood 
mares,  with  offspring  of  three  years,  and  eight  stallions  throughout 
Longestrode,  except  within  the  enclosures  around  the  said  William's 
lodges.  The  foresters,  studmen,  and  cowherds  were,  however, 
forbidden  to  blow  their  horns,  shout,  chase,  or  use  any  device  that 
would  frighten  or  in  any  way  interfere  with  the  said  horses  enjoying  the 
free  pasturage  of  the  said  lands.  If  they  did,  reasonable  amends  was 
to  be  made.  The  Abbot  might  also  have  a  lodge  in  the  forest,  and 
make  folds  where  he  chose  of  the  said  William's  wood,  or  of  stone  if 
preferred,  and  he  might  also  make  fire  of  the  wood  to  brand  his  horses. 

In  several  places  in  the  dale  there  are  traces  of  what  seem  like 
ancient  sheep  or  cattle  enclosures,  which  are  probably  vestiges  of  this 
grant  to  the  monks  of  Fountains  in  1241.  An  enclosure  of  this  kind, 
composed  of  a  number  of  big  stones  on  end,  lies  at  the  low  end  of  the 
second  pasture  on  the  north  side  of  the  river  between  Yockenthwaite 
and  Deepdale,  and  has  been  described  as  a  Druids'  Circle.  It  is 
doubtless  one  of  these  monastic  "folds." 

About  Raysgill  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  water  are  some 
curious  field-names,  such  as  Low  Pummell,  Middle  and  Far  Hurrells, 
Bouthergill,  &c.  The  hills  around  here  rise  somewhat  precipitously 
from  the  valley,  and  being  partly  clothed  with  wood  have  a  very 
romantic  appearance.  I  have  mentioned  the  pass  from  this  point 
into  Littondale,  a  wild  mountain  walk  of  three  or  four  miles.  Mr. 
John  Beresford,  of  Raysgill,  I  may  add,  has  in  his  possession  various 
interesting  relics,  including  an  original  censer  used  in  one  of  the  pre- 
Reformation  churches. 

Passing  Yockenthwaite  and  romantic  Deepdale  we  observe  the 
Cowside  farm  on  the  south  side  of  the  river,  where  are  some  old 
hippins',  and  the  bank  opposite  is  known  as  Hippin-Stone  Hill,  not 
Whipping-Stone,  as  erroneously  given  in  the  Ordnance  maps.  A  mile 
or  so  beyond  and  we  come  to  Beckermonds,  where  the  two  main 
feeders  of  the  infant  Wharfe  unite.  The  principal  of  these  streams 
comes  down  the  wildly-beautiful  glen  of  Oughtershaw,  while  the  other 
descends  from  Greenfield  Knot,  the  western  limit  of  the  grand  old 
Chase  of  Langstroth.  The  scenery  all  round  is  romantic  and 
picturesque,  and  strongly  tempts  us  to  linger.  But  there  are  no  inns 
in  this  out-of-the-way  part  of  the  valley  and  few  houses,  and  if  we  are 
intending  crossing  the  Cam  or  Greenfield  into  Ribblesdale  we  must 
start  betimes,  with  plenty  of  daylight  before  us. 

The  Lodges  were  an  old  family  at  Beckermonds,  having  been 
connected  with  this  district  for  many  centuries.  A  family  of  the 


OUGHTERSHAW     HALL     LANGSTROTHDALE. 


497 

name  was  living  at  Huckden  in  the  time  of  Richard  II.  Robert  Lodge 
was  living  at  Meckermonds  two  centuries  ago,  and  from  him  descend 
the  Lodge  family  of  the  Rookery  in  Bishopdale.  Dr.  Richard  Lodge, 
horn  in  1794,  a  well-known  physician  at  Hawkshead,  was  of  the 
same  stock,  and  his  daughter,  Anne  Elizabeth  Lodge,  married  the 
Rev.  T.  Leach,  vicar  of  Thornton-in-Lonsdale.  Two  of  their  sons 
are  clergymen,  and  a  third,  .Mr.  Richard  Ernest  Leach,  M.A.,  K.L.S., 
&C.,  is  the  present  head-master  of  Appleby  Grammar  School. 

There  is  an  amazing  amount  of  interest  in  this  remote  valley, 
but  as  this  work  has  already  greatly  exceeded  its  intended  limits,  I 
must  perforce  be  brief.  We  will  therefore  now  ascend  the  pleasant 
road  which  leaves  the  main  valley  at  Beckermonds,  and  a  short  two 
miles  will  bring  us  to  Oughtershaw.  All  around  we  perceive 
indications  of  the  immense  labour  that  has  been  expended,  and  the 
taste  that  has  been  displayed  in  improving  and  beautifying  a 
naturally  wild  and  elevated  tract  of  country.  Here  we  are  about 
1,300  feet  above  the  sea.  Much  of  the  land  was  formerly  in  the 
hands  of  small  proprietors,  but  about  sixty  years  ago  was  purchased 
in  lots  by  Mr.  Basil  George  VVoodd,  of  Hillfield,  Hampstead,  whose 
son,  the  late  Mr.  Chas.  H.  Lardner  Woodd,  laid  out  considerable 
sums  in  reclaiming  and  draining  large  extents  of  the  surrounding 
moors.  He  also  planted  and  in  other  ways  greatly  improved  the 
aspects  of  the  place. 

The  Hall,  which  overlooks  a  romantic  reach  of  the  little 
mountain-river,  shewn  in  the  accompanying  plate,  was  commenced 
in  1850,  and  is  a  handsome  and  well-fit-up  building,  the  envy,  one 
would  think,  of  even  a  seasoned  townsman.  Many  things  of  interest 
have  been  collected  together  by  the  interested  owners  of  the  estate, 
and  in  the  dining-room  is  a  curious  implement  of  oak  obtained  from 
a  neighbouring  bog.  Round  about  are  lush  meadows  and  pastures, 
where  one  may  gather  primroses  and  cowslips,  orchids,  and  heaps  of 
sweet  buttercups  and  daisies.  The  village  looks  a  model  of  cleanness 
and  comfort,  and  its  pretty  school-house,  with  Norman  porch,  quite 
tempts  us  to  step  inside.  On  Sundays  services  are  held  in  the 
school-house,  which  is  also  licensed  by  the  Bishop  for  the 
administration  of  sacraments.  The  nearest  church  is  at  Hubberholme, 
six  miles  distant. 

The  whole  estate,  extending  to  the  source  of  the  river  on  Cam 
Fell,  is  now  the  property  of  the  Rev.  Trevor  Basil  Woodd,  M.A.,  LL.B., 
vicar  of  St.  Peter's,  Buckingham  Gate,  London,  eldest  son  of  the  late 
Mr.  Chas.  H.  L.  Woodd,  mentioned  above.  Mr.  Woodd,  together 
with  other  members  of  the  family,  fully  upholds  the  good  traditions 
of  his  parents  in  taking  the  liveliest  interest  in  every  measure 
calculated  to  improve  and  beautify  the  ancestral  domain.  In  former 
years  he  and  his  brother,  Mr.  Chas.  Hampden  B.  VVoodd,  took 
especial  delight  and  devoted  considerable  time  in  studying  and 


investigating  every  aspect  of  the  grand  upland  country  where  they 
lived.  Its  geology,  meteorology,  botany,  and  natural  history  generally 
were  followed  and  noted  with  the  keenest  interest,  and  some  of  their 
contributions  to  the  Naturalist,  particularly  on  the  flowering  plants  of 
the  district,  are  genuine  aids  to  science.  Some  300  species  of  plants 
have  been  recorded  by  them  as  flourishing  within  a  few  miles'  radius 
of  Oughtershaw,  and  these  include  some  very  uncommon  species,  as 
well  as  records  of  plants  found  at  altitudes  elsewhere  unknown  in 
Yorkshire.  No  doubt  draining  and  planting  have  contributed  to  raise 


SWARTHGILL,   THE     HIGHEST    HOUSE    IN    WHARFEDALE. 

the  altitudinal  range  of  some  of  the  species.  The  common  sycamore, 
it  may  be  noted,  has  been  found,  together  with  the  purple  fox-glove, 
self-sown  in  a  pot-hole  near  Oughtershaw  Tarn,  at  an  elevation  of 
i, 800  feet  above  the  sea. 

Some  distance  above  Oughtershaw  we  come  to  the  lonely  farm 
of  Swarthgill,  the  last  inhabited  house  in  the  valley  and  the  highest 
within  the  watershed  of  the  Wharfe.  Its  altitude  is  about  1,300  feet, 
and  there  are  evidences  of  ancient  glaciers  in  the  vicinity.  All 
around  sweep  the  gaunt  hills  and  green  and  purple  moors, 

—  those  wastes  of  heath 
Stretching  for  miles  to  lure  the  bee, 
Where  the  wild  bird  on  pinions  strong-, 
Wheels  round  and  pours  his  piping  song, 
And   timid  creatures  wander  free." 


499 

A^  (UK-  of  the  last  haunts  of  wild  deer  in  Yorkshire,  the  ancient 
Chase  of  Langstrothdale  is  particularly  memorable,  and  many  a  time 
must  the  blast  of  horn  and  the  baying  of  hounds  have  echoed  among 
these  grand  impressive  solitudes.  Buck-hunting  in  Langstrothdale  is 
recorded  in  their  annals  by  the  monks  of  Bolton,  and  there  are  main 
who  think  that  when  King  James  VI.  was  on  his  way  from  Scotland  in 
1603  to  accede  to  the  throne  of  England,  he  and  his  party  enjoyed  a 
day's  hunting  in  the  neighbouring  Forest  of  Wensleydale,  as  the 
guests  of  Sir  Thomas  Metcalfe,  of  Nappa  Hall.  This  is  an  old 
tradition,  although  there  is  little  evidence  to  support  it,  as  explained 
in  my  work,  Romantic  Riclimondshire,  pages  466-7.  But  in  an  event 
of  such  importance  the  keepers  and  foresters  for  many  miles  around 
would  no  doubt  have  been  invited  to  accompany  the  royal  party,  and 
Mr.  Woodd  informs  me  that  in  1893,  while  exploring  the  high  moors 
between  Langstrothdale  and  Wensleydale,  he  picked  out  of  a  peat 
bog  a  coin  of  the  reign  of  this  monarch.  The  coin  was  in  fair 
condition,  and  bore  the  name  and  legend  of  James  VI.  of  Scotland. 
But  whether  it  can  be  connected  with  the  incident  I  have  related  is, 
of  course,  questionable. 

Mr.  Woodd  likewise  informs  me  that  some  years  ago  a  workman, 
while  removing  a  stone  on  the  Cam  Road,  found  beneath  it  some 
thirty  or  more  silver  coins  of  English  and  Scottish  Kings  of  the  latter 
part  of  the  i4th  century.  No  doubt  during  the  Border  raids  this  was 
one  of  the  old  roads  into  Yorkshire  from  Scotland  and  Carlisle 
through  Mallerstang,  and  this  small  hoard  has  been  concealed 
probably  on  the  occasion  of  a  sudden  surprise.  A  gold  coin  of  the 
same  period  was  discovered  at  Burnsall.  (See  page  402.) 

But  now  we  are  approaching  the  end  of  our  long  and  pleasant 
journey.  Following  the  beck  upwards,  the  source  is  at  last  gained 
in  a  swampy  bottom  on  the  lonely  moor,  some  two-and-a-half  miles 
above  Oughtershaw.  Nor  sound  nor  sign  of  life  disturbs  the 
impressive  silence  of  the  great  expanse  of  wild  unpeopled  fell. 
A  little  bubbling  spring,  true  "child  of  the  clouds,''  and -that  is  all 
we  see  !  Here  then  I  must  bid  adieu  to  the  romantic  region  of  the 
Upper  Wharfe,  seeking  him  who  uttered  nothing  base  to  sing  the 
paean  of  our  meeting  and  of  our  parting  at  the  birthplace  of  the 
classic  stream  of  our  Motherland  :— 

To  chant  thy  birth,  thou  ha^t 
No  meaner  poet  than  the  whistling"  blast, 
And  Desolation  is  thy  patron  saint! 

She  guard-  thee,  ruthles-  power  !   who  would  not  spare 
Those  mighty  forests,  once  the  bison's  screen, 
Where  stalked  the  huge  deer  to  his  shaggy  lair 
Through  paths  and  alleys  roofed  with  darkest  green, 
Thousands  of  years  before  the  silent  air 
Was  pierced  by  whixxing  shaft  of  hunter  keen  ! 


SUBSCRIPTION     LIST. 


The  *  denotes  subscribers  to  tin1  large  Jiaper  edition,  and  the  figures  after  the  names  refet 

fa  tin'  number  of  copies  subscribed  to  of  tin'  ordinary  edition. 

*  THE  RT.  HON.  AND  MOST  RKV.  WILLIAM  DALYKYMPI.K  MACI.A(;AN,   D.D. 
ARCHBISHOP  or  YORK,  Bishopthorpe,   York. 


*  AUSTIN,    ALI-REU,    POET    LAUREATE, 
Ashfbrd. 

Ackroyd,  John,  Rodley. 

Adshtad,  G.  H.,  Pendleton. 

Addy,  David,  Keighlev. 

Ainlcy,  Hefford,  Kirkheaton. 

Allen,  K.  G..  London  (2). 

Allen,  John,  Burnley. 
*Anderton,  H.  F.,  Harrogute. 

Anderton,  Rev.  R.  F.  R.,  Hubberholnic. 

Appleton,  Henry,  Burley,  Leeds. 
•Armitage,  Henry,  Otley. 

Arundel,  C.  E.,  Leeds. 

Ashworth,   Lewis,  Burnley. 

Aspinall,    Rev.    G.    K.,    M.A.,    J.P. 
Southowram. 

Athron,  Alderman,  Doncaster. 

Atkinson,  C.  J.  F.,  Burley-in-Wh'fedale. 

Atkinson,  C.  M.,  Leeds. 
"Atkinson,  Rev.  Dr.,  Cambridge. 
"Atkinson,  H.  W.,  Peebles  N.B. 

A\rt(«n,  Alfred,  Manning-ham. 

Ayrton,  John,  Brig-house. 

Ayrton,  Wm.,  Liverpool. 

•BACKHOUSE,  JAMES,  Harrogate. 

Baildon,  \V.  Paley,  F.S.A.,  London. 

Bailey,  Chas.,  F.L.S.,  Manchester. 
*Bailey  &  Co.,  Darlington, 
•Baldwin,  Edwd.  T.,  London. 

Baldwin,  John  R.,  East  Barton. 

Bancroft,  Arthur,  Keighley. 

Barber,  John,  J.P.,  Harrogate. 

Barker,  Edmund,  West  Hartlepool. 

Barker,  Joseph  H.,  Horsforth. 

Barker,  T.  E.,  Bradford. 

Baskett,  Rev.  C.  R.,  Birstwith. 

Bates,  Cadwallader  J.,  Langley  Castle. 

Bayford,  Edwin,  Barnsley. 

Bavnes,  John,  J.P.,  Ripon  (2). 
•Beanlands,  Rev.  Canon,  M.A.,  Victoria, 

British  Columbia. 
•Beanlands,  John,  Ilkley. 

Beckett,  E.  W.,  M.P.,  Leeds. 

Bedford,  James,  Leeds. 

Behrens,  Harry,  Frizinghall. 

Bell,  George,  Laisterdyke. 


Bell,  J.  H.,  M.D.,  Bradford. 

Bellhouse,  Miss  A.,  Leeds. 

Bellhouse,  Wm.,  Ilkley. 

Bennett,  W.  E.,  Otley. 

Benson,  George,  A.R.I.B.A.,  York. 

Berry,  James,  J.P.,  Grimsargli. 

Bibbs,  E.  J.,  Wolverhampton. 

Bilbrough,  J.  W.,  Ben  Rhydding. 

Bilbrough,  W.  R..  Leeds. 

Billows  &  Co.,  Keighley  (-,). 

Bingley,  Godfrey,  Heading-ley. 

Binns,  J.,  Keighley. 

Binns,  J.  Arthur,  Bradford. 
*Binns,   Joseph,  Keighlev. 
"Black,   |.  W.  A.,  Cononley. 

Bland,  John  A.,  Burnsall. 

Blenkhorn,  C.,  Knaresbro'. 

Bolton,  H.,  Fairfield,  Manchester. 
•Bools,  Wm.  E.,  Clapham  S.W. 

Booth,  Henry,  Massachusetts,   f.S.A. 
" Booth royd,  Mr.,  Brighouse. 

Bottomley,  Alfred,  Keighley. 
'"'Bottomley,  J.  II.,   Hipperholme. 
""Bottomley,  Win.  Hy.,  Keighley. 

Boyle,  J.'R.,  F.S.A.,  Hull. 

Bradbury,  S.  L.,  Bradford. 

Brammall,  J.  H..  Sheffield. 

Brayshaw,  M.,  West  Bowling. 

Brayshaw,  Thos.,  Settle. 

Brigg,  Benj.  S.,  J.P.,  Keighley. 

Brigg,  Win,  Anderton,   Klklwick  Hall. 

Briggs,  Phineas,  Clayton. 

Bi-ittain,  Alderman,  F.R.(;.S.,  Sheffield. 
•Brogden,  J.  H.,  Menston. 

Bromley,  Chas.,  Goole. 

Brooks,  II.,  Otley. 

Brooks,  J.  T.,  Otley. 

Brown,  J.  B.,  Hebden  Bridge. 

Browne,  Rev.  Jos.,  Stonyhurst  Coll. 
•Brown,  Richd.,  Stockport. 
•Brotherton,  E.  Allen,  Arthington  Hall. 

Brotherton,  George,  Burnley. 

Brownridge,  Chas.,  Birkenhead  (2). 

Broughton,  John,  Barnoldswick. 

Burrell,  Arthur,  Isleworth. 
•Butterfield,  A.  W.,  Werneth. 

Butterfield,  C.  W.,  Headingley. 


502 


*ButterfieId,  S.,  Oldham. 

Butlerfield,  K.  P..  \Vilsden. 
•"Butterfield,  Wm.,  Bradford. 

Bui-net,  H.  K.,  Bradford. 
•"Burnley,  Jas.,  J.P.,  Bramhope. 

Burton,  Joseph  J.,  Nunthorpe. 

Byles,  A.   Holden,  B.A.,  Austwick. 

*CRANBROOK,  KT.  HON.  THK  KARL  or, 
Hemsted  Park,  Cranbrook. 

Calvert,  Rhodes,  Manning-ham. 

Camidg-e,  Wm.,  F.R.H.S.,  York. 

Campbell,  Chas.,  Bradford. 

Canham,  Rev.  H.,  Leathley  (2). 
*Carter,  F.  R.,  Potter  Newton. 

Carter,  J.  W.,  Manningham. 

Carr,  A.  E.,  Leeds. 

Chadwick,  S.  J.,  Dewsbury. 

Chambers,  Harry  W.,  Sheffield. 
*Chambers,  John  E.  F.,  Tibshelf. 

Charnock,  G.  F.,  Bradford. 
*Chesney,  P.  K.,  Bradford  (i). 

Chrystal,  R.  S.,  Manchester  (2). 

Clapham,  Geo.  W.,  Sheffield. 

Clapham,  John,  Bradford. 

Clapham,  John,  London. 
*Clapham,  J.  Arthur,  Bingley  (i). 

Claridge,  Wm.,  Bradford. 

Clarke,  Rev,  Alfred,  Steeton,-in-Craven. 

Clarkson,  J.  N.,  Riddlesden  Hall. 

Clay,  J.  W.,  F.S.A.,  Rastrick. 

Clayton,  John,  Harrog-ate. 

Cliff,  John,  Fulneck. 
*Close,  J.  W.,  Leeds. 
*Copperthwaite,  G.  A.,  Shipley. 

Cole,    Rev.    E.    M.,    M.A.,    F.G.S., 
Wetwang. 

Collier,  Rev.  Carus  V.,  F.S.A.,  Burton 
Agnes. 

Collingwood,  W.  G.,  M.A.,  Coniston. 

Cooke,  J.  S.,  Gomersal. 

Cookes,  C.  E.,  Richmond  (2). 
*Cornish,  J.  E.,  Manchester  (2). 

Cotton,   T.   A.,   C.C.,    F.L.S.,   &c., 
Bishopstoke. 

Cowling,  Harry,  Silsden. 
*"Cragg,  R.  Balderston,  Skipton  (i). 

Craven,  Fred,  F.C.A.,  Bradford. 

Craven,  Herald  Co.,  Skipton  (6). 

Crowther,  John,  Grassington  (12). 

Crowther,  Joseph,  Burley-in-Wh'fedale. 
*Critchley,  H.  T.,  Ilkley. 

Cryer,  B.  G.,  Bradford. 

Cudworth,  Wm.,  Bradford. 

Cunliffe,  W.  F.,  London. 

Cuttriss,  S.W.,  Leeds. 


K,    His  GRACK  THE   DrKi: 
OK,  Bolton  Abbey,  Yorkshire. 

Dale,  Rev.  Bryan,  M.A.,  Bradford. 

Dales,  H.  C.,  Burnsall  (6). 

Darlington,  I..,  Harrogate. 

Darlow,  Stephen,  Bingley. 
""Darwin,  Francis,  J.P.,  Creskeld. 
*DawM>n,  I.t.-Col.  H.P.,  Harllington. 

Dawson,  P.  \V.,  Hull. 

Dawson,  T.  (i.,  Otley. 

Dawson,  R.  F.,  Gt.  llorlon. 
*  Dawson,  W.  H.,  Otley. 

Dawson,  Rev.  S.  T.,  Harrogate. 
•-Dawson,  W.  S.,  Otley. 

Denison,  R.  W.,  Bradford. 
*Denison,  Councillors.,  Leeds. 
**Dickons,  J.  Norton,  Bradford  (i). 
*Dixon,  John  W.,  Shipley. 

Dickinson,  John  G.,  Keighley. 

Dodgson,  E.  O.,  Leeds  (2). 
***Dodgson,  Joseph,  Leeds  (6). 

Driver,  Wm.,  Keighley. 
*Duncan,  J.  Hastings,  Otley. 
"Duncan,  Thos.  A.,  J.P.,  Otley. 
""•Duncan,  Thos.,  Otley. 

Dunkerley,  Thos.,  Werneth. 

Dyson,  Geo.,  Marsden. 
*Dyson,  Hiram,  Huddersfield. 

*EFFINGHAM,  RT.  HON.  THE  EARL  OK, 
Tusmore  Park,  Bicester. 

Eastwood,  John  A.,  Manchester. 

Eccleston,  Wm.,  Barnoldswick  (6). 
'"'Eckersley,  J.  Carlton,  Carlton  Manor. 

Edge,  Walter,  Bradford. 
***Edmondson  &  Co.,  Skipton  (6). 

Ellet,  Frank,  Ilkley. 

"FAIRFAX,    GUY    THOS.,     BILBROUGH 

HALL. 
*Farrah,  John,  F.R.Met.S.  Harrogate  (i) 

Fairer,  John,  Oulton. 

Farrer,  Wm.  Marton. 

Fawcett,  Edwin,  Lidget  Green. 

Fawthrop,  Joseph,  Bradford. 

Federer,  C.  A.  Bradford. 
*Ferrand,  Wm.,  D.  L.,  St.  Ives,  Yorks. 

Field,  Geo.,  Heaton. 

Field,  W.  T.,  Bradford. 
*Firth,  Wm.,  Bradford. 

Ford,  J.  Rawlinson,  J.P.,  Leeds. 

Fortune,  W.  H.,  Bradford. 
*Foster,  Colonel,  M.P.,  Hornby  Castle. 

Foster,  James,  Manningham. 
*Foster,  John,  Horton-in-Ribblesdale. 

Foster,  Geo.,  Hareliills. 


i;ill,    i:.   (  '.   (Miss),   Boxvdon. 
I  ox,  J.   Daxvson,  Bingle\'. 

:.  A.  Cooilrieh,  Bushey  Heath. 
Frost,   Rex.  C.   Percy  II.,  Otlev. 
I  \  te,  John  R.,  Shiplex  . 

(  i  \I.I.il\VAY,  MRS.         I'".         ('.,         West 

Bowling"  (i). 

*Garnett,  Wm.,  Clithen.e. 
':'-( Jarnett-Orme,  Mrs.,  Tarn  House. 
*Gerrard,  John,  Worsley. 

Gill,  J.  W.,  Bradford. 

Gladstone,  Wm.,  Otlev. 
-op,  \\'m.,  Bradford. 
A  in,  J.  ,\.,  J.P.,  Bradford. 
*Cioldsbi-ough,  Rev.  A.,  Pickering. 

Goldthorp,  B.  II.,  Cleckheaton. 

Gomersall,  Mrs.,  Skipton. 

Gomersall,  Rev.  W.  J.,  Hampstead. 

Goodall,  T.  W.,  Bingley. 
*Graves,  H.,  Bradford. 

Greaves,  Edward,  Otlev. 

Grahl,  C.  E.,  Leeds. 

Grandage,  James,  Bradford. 
*Gray,  Henry,  East  Acton  (i). 

Gray,  Thomas,  Heading-Icy. 

Green,  Bernard,  Glusburn. 

Green,  Albert  S.,  Leeds. 

Green,  T.  W.,  Bingley. 

t  in  i  nxvood,  Arthur,  Leeds. 

tireenxvood,  W.  Norman,  Ingleton. 

(iregory,  I-'.  E.,  Bingley. 

Gregory,  John  \'.,  Newcastle-on-Tyne. 

*HALIFAX,      RT.      HON.      VISCOCNT, 

Hiekleton,  Doncaster. 
*Hawkesburv,    Rt.    Hon.    Lord,    F.S.A., 
Kirkham  Abbey,  ^"ork(I). 

Hainsworth,  \\*.   II.,  Cononley. 

Hales,  Profess,,,- J.W.,  F.S.A.,  London. 

Haley,  ('lias.  II.,  Stanningley. 
'Hanson,  C.  E.,  Manningham. 
*Hardaker,  John,  Bradford. 

Hardcastle,  \\'m.,  Manningham. 
*Hard\vick,  James,   Burnley. 

Marker,  James,  Harrogate. 

Harland,  Henry  S.,  F.S.A.,  Brighton. 

Harper,  Mrs.,  Harrogate. 

Harris,   Henry,  F.sholt. 

I  lartley,  Mrs.,   Bingley. 

Hartley,  J.  T.,  Burnley. 

Hartley,  Wm.,   Heckmondxvike. 
'Haxvkyard,  Dr.  A.,   Hunslet. 

Haygarth,  Thomas,  Keighlex-. 

Hay  wood,  James  R.,  Otley. 

Head,  Herman,  Huddersfield. 

Heaton     Mrs.,   L'nderclilte. 


503 


llcwgill.   Rev.  \\".,  M.A..  Farnworth. 
I  lex  ,   I  Ian  v,  Savile  Town. 
Hick,  I-!..  Horstorth. 
Ilinrhlilie,  (',,•«.   II.,   Leeds. 
Hind,  Wm.  Harley,   Bradford. 
Hirst,  J.   B.,  Eldwick. 
Hi-coke  &  Son,  Richmond. 
Hiuhman,  J.  &  Co.,  Sheffield  (2). 
Hot.kirk,  Chas.  1'.,  F.I..S.,  Ilkley. 

I  lobson,  J.  I-"..  Durham. 

'Holden,  Angus,  M.P.,  Nun  Appleton. 

Holmes,  F.,  Ilklcy. 
*Holmes,  Rev.  II.  C.,  Hirkby  K.-ctory(i) 

Holmes,  Mrs.  Josi-ph,  Shipley. 

Holmes,  Lionel,  Steeton  in  Craven. 

Holmes,   \V.   II.,   B.C.I..,  Truro,   Nova 
Scotia. 

II  o,,«l,  F.  M.,  Ilkey. 

Hopkinson,   John,    F.L.S.,    F.G.S.,    St. 

Albans. 
*Hopper,  Chas.,  C'roft  Spa. 

Home,  \Vm.,  E.G.S.,  Leyburn. 
*Howarth,  J.  H.,  F.G.S.,  Halifax. 

Unwell,  Kd.,  Liverpool  (2). 

Howes.  Rev.  A.  P.,  Bolton  Abbey. 

Hunter,  Fred  T.,  Otlev. 
"Hurst,  Josh.  S.,  J.I'.,  Coptthewick  Hall. 

I  lutchinson,  John  II.,  Calterick. 

Hyde  Arthur,  Bradford. 

INGII.HY,  SIR  HKNKY  I).  BART.,  RIIM.KY 
CASTLE. 

Ing-ham,  \\*m.,  B.A.,  York. 
Inman,  Henry,  Kilnsi  \  . 
Irving,  Rex-.  K.  ('..,  Ra-trick. 


JACKSON,  HAI«;KKAVI-:S, 
James,   Philip,  Brough. 
Jefferson,  R.  J.,  Stirton. 
Johnson,  Walter,  Northallerton. 
Johnson,  \\'m.  I.,  Bradford. 
*Johnston,  James,  M.H.,  Manning-ham. 
Jones,  Ceo.   F..   I  .K.I.H.A.,  Malton. 

*KlTSON,  Sirjanie^,  Bart.,  M.I'.,  Leeds. 

Keighley,  Alex.,  F.  R.I'.S.,  Steeton. 

Kendall,  Rev.  W.  C.,  Ax--garth  Stn.  (2). 

Kidd,  Wm.,  Otl.-y. 

Kitlson,   Francis  J.,   Leeds. 

Killingbeck,  John,  Kidderminster. 

Kirby,  R.  I..,  I.inthorpe  (j). 

Kirk,  Mrs.,  Ingleton. 

Kirkxvood,  Stephen,    Bramley. 
*Kitehing,  T.,  Mor--cambe  fi  ). 
*Knowles,  C'.  II.,  Harrog-ate. 
*Kno\vlcs,  John,  Kirkby  Lonsdale. 

Knubley,  Rev    K.  P.,  M.A.,  Steeple 
Asliton. 


5°4 


*LUPTON,  WM.  C.,  Mayor  of  Bradford. 
Lambert,  Abm.,  Harrogate. 
Lancaster,  W.,  Bradford. 
Laycock,  W.  H.,  Keighley. 
La/en bj%  James,  Bradford. 
**Leach,R.E.,M.A.,F.L.S.,&o.,Appl'by. 
Latimer,  T.,  Pudsey. 
Leadman,  Alex.  D.  H. ,  F.  S.  A. ,  Pock'gton 
*Leigh,  Rev.  N.  Egerton,  Kirkstall  V'age 
Leonard,  F.,  Huddersfield. 
Leonard,  T.  A.,  Whitby. 
LIBRARIES — 

*Bingley  Public  Library  (i). 

Blackburn  Free  Library  &  Museum. 

Bolton  Subscription  Library. 

Boston  Public  Library,  Mass. ,  U.  S.  A . 

Bradford  Church  Institute. 
*  Bradford  Fret  Libraries  (12). 
*Bradford  Hist,  and  Antiq.  Society. 

Bradford  Nat.  Hist.  &  Micros.  Soc. 

Bradford  Mechanics'  Institute. 

Bradford  Subscription  Library. 

Burnley  Mechanics'  Institute. 

Cardiff  Free  Library. 

Chicago,  Newberry  Library. 

Clitheroe  Free  Library. 

Darlington,  Edwd.  Pease  Pub.  Lib. 

Derby  Public  Library. 

Dewsbury  Public  Library. 

Edinburgh  Public  Library. 

Glasgow,  Mitchell  Library. 

Halifax  Public  Library. 

Harrogate  Public  Library. 

Hull  Public  Libraries  (4). 

Ilkley  Library  Co.,  Ld. 

Keighley  Institute. 

Leeds  Church  Institute. 

Leeds  Circulating  Library. 
*Leeds  Free  Libraries  (6). 
*Liverpool  Public  Library. 
*Manchester,  Cheetham  Library. 
*Manchester  Free  Library. 

Middlesborough  Free  Library  (2). 

Newcastle-on-Tyne  Public  Liby.  (2). 

Oldham  Free  Library. 

Otley  Mechanics'  Institute. 

Pudsey  Mechanics'  Institute. 

Rochdale  Free  Library  (2). 

St.  Helens  Central  Library. 

Sheffield  Public  Libraries  (6). 

Shipley,  Salt  Schools. 

South  Shields  Public  Library. 

Wakefield  Book  Society. 

York,  Bootham  School. 

York,  Philosophical  Society. 
*Liversedge,  F.  J.,  Manningham. 


*Lofthouse,  J.  H.,  Harrogate. 

Longbottom,  David,  Silsden. 
*Lucy,  Chas.  F.,  Pickering. 

Lumb,  G.  Denison,  Lei  •<•!•-. 
""Lumby,  Wm.,  Aysgarth. 
*Lupton,  Arthur,  Burnley. 

Lupton,  Albert,  Burnley. 

Lupton,  Ben).,  Burnley. 
*Lupton,  J.  T.,  Burnley. 
*  Lupton  Bros.,  Burnley  (6*  and  6). 

Lyon,  J.  F.,  Leyburn  (2). 

*MASHAM,  RT.  HON.  LORD,  Swinton. 
*Marsham-Townshend,    Hon.    Robert, 

London. 
*4tMeysey-Thompson,    Sir    Henry    M., 

Bart,  M.P.,  Kirby  Hall. 
*McCormack,  Dr.,  Otley. 
*Manby,  Frederic,  Skipton. 

Marriner,  A.  H.,  Keighley. 

Marriott,  Chas.  H.,  J.P.,  Dewsbury. 

Marshall,  A.,  Otley. 

Marston,  Jas.,  Otley. 
*Mason,  Chas.  Letch,  Leeds. 
*Mason,  Rev.  J.  Wharton,  Marrick. 

Mason,  Philip  B.,  J.P.,Burton-on-Trent 
*Mason,  Richard,  Liverpool. 

Maude,  Rev.  Arthur,  Burgh  Rectory  (2). 
*Maude,  W.  C.,  Bournemouth. 
''Matthews  &  Brooke,  Bradfd  (20*  &  36) 

Mellor,  Henry,  Paisley. 

Metcalfe,  James,  Barnoldswick. 

Metcatfe,  John,  Bradford. 
*Metcalfe,    John     Hawkridge,    J.P., 
Pateley  Bridge  (i). 

Metcalfe,  Reginald,  Cape  Town,  S.A. 

Metcalfe-Gibson,  Mrs.,  Ravenstonedale 
**Miles,  James,  Leeds  (6). 

Milligan,  Wm.,  Otley. 

Mills,   F.  W.,  F.R.M.S.,  Huddersfield. 
*Milne,  S.  M.,  Calverley  House. 
*Milnes,  Eli,  F.S.I.,  Bradford. 

Milnes,  W.  H.,  Wakesfield  (2). 

Mitchell,  Mrs.  Hy.,  Harrogate. 
*Mitchell,  Wm.,  Bradford. 
*Moore,  J.  W.,  Bradford. 

Moorhouse,  Jas.  Ellison,  Shipley. 

Morrell,  Wm.  Wilberforce,  York. 
*Morrison,  Walter,  M.P.,  London  (2). 

Mortimer,  E.,  Halifax  (3). 

Moser,  Jacob,  J.P.,  Manningham. 

Moss,  W.  H.,  Otley. 

Muff,  Frederick  B.,  Ilkley. 

Muff,  Henry,  Bradford. 
*Myers,  Satnl.  Peel,  Bradford. 

Mylne,  Beatrice,  Leeds. 


5°5 


;  NOKI  OLK,  His  GKACI-.    mi:    |)IKI-:OI, 
KAKI,  MARSHAL,  London, 
lor,  !•:.,  Bradford  (i) 
"Neslicld,  Ceo.  Blow,  London  (i). 

licid,  G.  S.,  Scarborough. 
NYvison,  C.  E.,  Darling-ton. 
"NcwMcad,  Chr.    [.,  Otley. 
NewMead,  Henry  f.,  Otley. 
Newton,  \Vm.,   Laisterdyke. 
Nicholls,  C.J.C.,  Skipton. 
"Nicholson,  John  S.,  Livc'rpool. 
North    of    England    School    Furnishing 

('<>.,  Sunderland  (3). 
'"Norwood,  Major  \V.,  Wakelield. 
Nutter,  J.,  Hradford. 
Nunweek,  J.,  Ingrow. 

-OXFORD,  RT.  REV.  THE  LORD  BISHOP 

of,  Cuddesdon  Palace,  Oxon. 

Oddy,  John  G.,  J.P.,  Addingham. 

Oldfield,  Ceo.,  Bradford. 
'•Oldfield.  G.  W.,  M.A.,  F.E.S.,  London. 
"Oxley,  Mrs.  C.,  Weybridge. 

POVVKI.I.,  SIR  FRANCIS  S.  BART,  M.I'., 

Bradford. 
'"Pilkington,  Sir  Gco.,  M.P.,  Southport. 

I'a^ci,  Misses  K.  &  A.  Skipton  (i). 

Pallister,  J.\\'.,  B.  Sc.,  Heading-lev. 
*Park,  Ceors^e,  Ilkli-v. 
':;Parke,  C,.  H.,  F.L.S.  &<-.,  Wakefield. 
''Parker,  Major  J.,  Browsludme  Hall  ( i ). 

Parker,   [aines,  (it.  Horton. 

Parkinson,  Rev.  T.,  North  Otterington. 

Parsons,  \\'aker,  Apperley  Bridg-e. 
*I'atchott,  Alfred,  Southport. 

Patchett,  John,  Bradford. 
*Pattison,  Frank  W.,  London  (i). 

Pawson,  A.  H.,  I-'arnley. 

Peacock,  F.  Gillet,  Crossbills. 

Peck,  H.  W.,  Hunsl,.(. 

Pepper,  Wm.  F.,  J.P.,  Arthington. 

1'ickering,   Rev.   Robt.,  M.A.,  Cowgill 

X'icarage. 
"i'ickles,  John,  Keighley. 

Pickles,  Stephen,  Stopes. 
"Pitcher,  \V.  N.  <K:  Co.,  Manchester  (i). 

"Pitts,    ].,  Otley. 

Platt,  \V.   II.,  Moorhead,  Shipley 

Pollard,  Collingwood,  Bradford  (i) 

Poole,  Richard,  Bradford. 

Poppleton,  J.  Eyre,  Pontefract. 
*I'oppleweIl,  J.  B.,  Beacon  Hill,  Ilkley. 

Potter,  Robt.,  Halifax. 
*Proctor,  Geo.,  Thornton-in-Craven. 
*Proctor,  Richard,  Burnley. 

Pullein,  Miss  C.,  Rotherfield. 


x,  Mos;    HON.   NIK  MAR<JI-IS  01 , 
Studley  Royal. 

n,  \Vm.,  Keighley. 

Randall,  Joseph,  Sheffield. 
*Ratcliffe,  Chas.,  G.,  J.P.,  Colne. 

Reynolds,  Richard,  F.I.C.,  Leeds. 

Rhodes,  Joseph,  F.J.I.,  Keighley. 
"Rhodes,  W.  Venables,  C'leckheaton. 
•"'Riddioiigb,  J.  T.,  Frizingball. 

Roberts,  Thomas,  Burnley. 

Robertshaw,  Smith,  Bingl' 

Robertshaw,  William,  Keighley. 
*Robinson,  Arthur  J.,  Clitheroe  Castle. 

Redfearn,  Rev.  Jas.,  Silsclen. 

Robinson,  S..  Barnoldswick. 

Robinson,  Mrs.  YVm.,  Sedbergh. 

Roebuck,  Wm.  Denison,  F.L.S.,  Leeds 

Ross,  Percival,  A.M.Inst.C.E.,  Wibsey 

Roundell,  Chas.  S.,  Xantwich. 

Rowntree,  \\".,  J.  P.,  Scarborough. 

Rudd,  R.  IL,  Bradford. 

Ryder,  John,  Bradford. 

'S.\vi.;-Axn-Si-:i.K,      RT.     HON.     LORD, 
Reading. 

Sayner,  John,  Harrogate. 

Scott,  A.  A.,  Manningham. 
"Scott,  John,  jun.,  Skipton-in-C raven ( i). 

Senior,  Albert,  Heckmondwike. 

Severs,  Dr.  (n-o.,  London. 
"Sewell,  P.  R.,  Liversedge. 
*Shackleton,  F.  R.,  Sydenham. 

Share,  Rev.  F.  A.  C.,  Linton  Rectory. 

Sharp,  Rev.  Richard,  Skipton. 

Sharpe,  Jacob,  Leeds. 

Shaw,  (iiles,  Southport. 

Sheard,  Michael,  Isle  of  Ely. 

Shuffrey,  Rev.  \\T.  A.,  M.A.,  Arncliffe. 

Shuttleworth,  J.,  Ilkley  (6). 

Sim,  I).,  Draughton. 
*Simpkin,  Edmund,  C.  E. ,  Bury. 

Sinclair,  J.  F.,  Otley. 

Singleton,  James,  Leeds. 
*Skidmore,  Chas.,  Bradford. 
*Slicer,  John,  Idle. 
*Slingsby,  F.  W.,  Red  House,  nr.  York. 

Slingsby,  Thomas,  Keighley. 

Smith,  Armistead,  Keighley. 

Smith,  E.,  Otley. 

Smith,  H.  R.,  Bradford. 
"Smith,  II.  Sutcliffe,  Harrogate. 
*Smith,  Richard,  London. 

Smith,  Mrs.,  Bingley. 

Smith,  Prince,  jun.,  Keighley. 
*Sowden,  John,  A.M,,  Bradford. 

Sowden,  W.  M.,  Bradford. 


50  6 


Speight,  Alfred,  Hraclford. 

Speight,  Miss  May,  Grassington. 

Spring,  Franci--  \\'.,  Keighlej-. 

Stavert,  Rev.  \Vr   .[.,  Burnsall  Rectory. 

Stechert,  G.  E.,  London  (2). 
*Stevens,  B    F.,  and  Brown,  London  (2). 
*Stead,  John  J.,  Heckmondwike. 
*Stephenson,  Joseph,  Combe  Down. 

Stockdale,  J.,  Burnsall. 

Stockdale,  Wm.,  Liverpool. 
*Stokes,  John,  M.D.,  Sheffield. 

Streets,  J.  E.,  Silsden. 

Strange,  Alfred,  Burnley. 
*Sugden,  Craven,  Silsden. 

Sunderland,  H.,  Silsden. 
*Sunderland,  John,  Skipton. 
••Sutrliffe,  F.  J.  Ramsbottom.M.Inst.C.E. 
&c.,  Bradford. 

Sutcliffe,  J.  B.,  Fremington. 

Swire,  Tom,  Keighley. 

Sykfs,  Arthur  F.,  Bradford. 

Sykes,  Rev.  W    S.,  Millom. 

:  TKMPKST,  SIR  ROBT.  T.,  BART.,  'Pong 
Hall. 

Tacey,  \Vm.  G.,  Bradford. 

Taylor,  Rev.  R.  V.,B.A.,Melbecks V'ge, 
*Teale,  T.  P.,  Leeds. 

Tempest,  Mrs.,  Broughton  Hall. 
*Tennant,  Cecil,  F.S.A.,  London. 
*Tennant,  Eleanora  H.  S.,  Clitheroe. 
"Tennant,  Hugh,  Derby. 
""Tennant,  Philip,  London. 

Terry,  Percival,  M.A.  (Oxon.),  Retford, 
*Thompson,  Alderman,  Wimslow. 

Thackeray,  Chas.  W.,  Bradford. 

Thompson,  J.,  Burnsall. 

Thrippleton,  John,  Leeds. 

Tolson,  Legh,  Dalton. 
*Topham,  Lupton  T.,  Lutterworth. 
*Turnbull,  Thomas,  Otley. 

Turner,  Benj.,  M.I. A.,  Barnslev. 

Turner,  T.,  Skipton. 

Twisleton,  T.,  Burley-in-Wharfedale  (2) 

VARI.KY,  JOHN,  C.E.,  M.S.A.,  Skipton. 
*Vickers,  T.  R.  &  G.,  Ilkley  (12). 

*WADSWORTH,  F.  Cleckheaton. 
Waddington,  S,  Bingley. 
\Valbank,  X.  H.,  Bingley. 


Walker,     A.     W.     Iliiisley,     M.I)., 
Harrogate. 

Walker,  Alfred,  Bradford. 

Walker,  Edmund,  Otley. 
***Walker,  Henry,  Leeds  (6) 

Walker,  John,  Gilstead. 

Walshaw,  Thomas,  Wakefield. 

Walton,  F.  F.,  Dr.  F.G.S.  &c.,  Hull. 

Ward,  J.,  Whitel  y,  J.P.,  Halifax. 

Ward,  H.  Snovvden,  London,  N. 

Ward,  Thomas  F.,  Middlesborough. 

Wardman,  George,  Leeds. 

Wardman,  Robert,  Manchester. 
*Watson,  Charles,  Southport. 

Watson,  Thomas,  Leeds  (2). 

Whalley,  Arthur,  Bradford. 

Whitaker,  F.,  Bolton  Abbey. 

Whitaker,  James,  Otley. 

Whitaker,  J.  H.,  London. 

Whitaker,  Wm.,  Otley. 

Whiteley,  James,  Oueensbury. 

Whiteley,  John,  Barnoldswick. 

Whitwell,  Wm.,  F.L.S.,  London. 

Wilkinson,  J.  H.,  F.R.G.S.,  LeecN. 

Wilkinson,  Mrs.  M.,  Bingley. 

Wilkinson,  Thomas,  Manningham. 

Wilkinson,  Wm.,  Bishop  Auckland. 

Wilks,  S.  L.  Butterworth,  Grassington. 

Willans,  Fred,  Edinburgh. 

Wigley,  J.  M.,  Lancaster. 
*Wilson,  Bernard,  Sedbergh. 

Wilson,  Charles,  M.,  Sheffield. 

Wilson,  Harold  I.,  M.A.,  Linton. 

Wilson,  J.  E.,  Ilkley. 

Wilson,  John  H.,  J.P.,  Harrowgate. 

Wilson,  J.  Mitchell,  M.D.,   Donra-ter. 
*Wilson,  J.  R.  Robinson,  Lee<N. 

Wilson,  S.  E.,  Manningham. 

Windle,  Darius,  Barnoldswick. 

Woodd,  Rev.  T.  Basil,    M.A.,    LL.B., 
Oughtershaw  Hall  (2). 

Woodiwiss  W.,  Cnllingworth. 

Woolley,  Alfred,  Bradford. 

Worden,  W.  J.,  Southport. 

Wright,  James,  Keighley  (2). 

*  Wright,  Samuel,  Bradford  (i). 
Wroot,  Herbert  E.,  Bradford. 

*Wuj^zburg,  John,  J.P.,  Leeds. 

*YORKE  THOS.,  E.,  Bewerley  Hall. 

*  Young,  H.  Tweed,  Huddersfield, 


5°7 


INDEX     OF     SURNAMES. 

AlUtoi  T,  221).  Haililon,  42,  203,  304.  Blackstotic,  4(1,  3*  -v 

Ackroyd,  73,  .So.  Bailey,  69.  Blake,  438. 

Adams,  m,  52.  Baines,  456,  466.  Blakey,  326. 

Agricola,   i8,S,  207,  425.  Hainton,  167,213.  Blund,  284,  377,  394,  3-. 

Albany,  102.  Bake,  486.  Blencowe,  40 [  (Ted.) 

AJbemarle,  298,  322,  366,  467.  Baldwin,  325,  326  (Ped.)  Blenkinsop,  352,  3S3- 

Albini,  413.  Bancroft,  339.  Boiling,  211,  221,  223. 

Alcock,  IK),  373,  31)4,  3<><>.  Bank-;,   181,  249.  Bnnef'annt,  50,  68. 

Aldersley,  339.  Barber,  85,  338  (Ped.)  Boocock,  338. 

Aider-son,  251.  Bancroft,  461  (Ped.)  Booth,  122,  384. 

Alenian,  409.  Barden,  Berden,  297.  Boott,   i46(I'ed.) 

Allen,  197,  233,  237,  23.S.  Barker,  56,  66,  68,  72,  85,  86,   Bowden,  438. 

Allerlon,  2iS.  270.  Bowet,  49. 

Allott,  124.  Barlow,  140  (Fed.)  Bowling,  206. 

Altaripa,  llaltaripa,  21)7,323.  Barraclougfb,  80.  Boyd,   19,  483. 

Ambler,  3X2.  Barrowe,  378.  Bovlf,   305,    306,   307   (Pcd. ) 

Ampletord,   146  (Ped.)  B.irter,   i46(Peil.)  393. 

Anderson,  41 1.  Barton,  326  Bradloy,    Bradlay,   2i.S,    25*, 

Andcrton,   146,  495.  Bate>;.  283.  334. 

AmNell,  346.  Batty,  397.  Braithwaite,  51  >. 

Ang-u-;,  33,  204.  Bawdwen,  325.  Branihall,  141. 

Antoninus  188,  1114,  197,430,  Bayles  384.  Bramley,  27<),  2,Si. 

465.  Baynbritfffe,  100.  Brandon, 

A])])U  ton,  72.  Beanland,  442.  Breare,  272. 

Arches,    407,    4<*>,    470,    487,  Beanlands  160,  21 1,  2 1  ^,  223,    Breary,   101,212 

4.S().  33-S.  Brereton,  416. 

Armitagv,  211.  Beauclei'k,  307  (Ped.)  Brii^,  335. 

Armstrong-,  72.  Beelie,  207.  Hriggr,  225. 

Arnold,   I4.S,   155.  Beck,   if-x).  Briggs,  25^,  251),  2<>o  (  Ped.  ) 

Arnold-l-'orster,   144,   153.  Bede,  33.  Brighouse,  25^. 

Arthington,   100,   124.  Bell,  215.  Brivtow, 

Arundcl,  305.  Bt-llasis,  441.  Broca-,    175. 

.\-kt-,  o^,  404.  Benu-slay,  330.  Bronte,  227. 

Askwith,   170.  Benson,  52,  85,  14*,  247,  21)4,    Broughton,  444,  401. 
Aston,  410.  2<»7,  320,  346,  34-S,  304,   ^- -,    Brown,   51,  81,   105,   143,    146 

AthelMan,   35,  37,  38.   43,  45,         402,  414.  (Ped.),  4^,  401  (Ped.) 

40,  60.  Bentliain,  09,  426.  Brou  ne,  287. 

Athole,  205.  Ben-stord,  496.  Brownridge,  442 

Atkin,  343.  Bern u If,   169.  Brownrigg,  260. 

Atkinson,   128,   129,    130,  378,  Bilbrongh,  75.  Bruce,   IOQ,   138. 

410.  Bilbyi-,  469.  Brumliu,  73,  2i,s. 

Avre,  412.  Billani,  <>7,  '»".  Brim,  44. 

. \vrton,  339,  341.  Binnie,   19.  Buckden,  Bukdene,  487. 

A v-congh,  66.  Birtwhistle,  339.  Bucktrout,  461  (I'ed.) 

Bishop,  338.  Bulmer,  146  (Ped.),  323,  305, 

BAHIVGION,  140.  Black,  144,  145,  146.  ;NJ. 

Backhouse,  249.  338.  Blackburn,  204.  Burlington,    283,     -,oo,    300, 

Bacon,  326.  Blackic,  90,  430.  335. 


=;oS 


Burnley,  129,  136- 
Burton,  136,  204,  296,  299. 
Bury,  394,  462. 
Busfield,  86,  196. 
Bustardbank,  173. 
Butterfield,  203,  220,  339. 
Bynns,  146  (Fed.) 
Byron,  41. 

C/EDMON,  189,  275. 
Cu'sar,  187,  231,  270. 
Call,  232,  233. 
Calverley,    61,    63,    67,    140, 

'57.  392. 

Calvert,  438,  440. 
Canute,  390,  423. 
Canham,  120. 
Carr,  103,  181,  294,  322,  335, 

346,  353.  397- 
Carlisle,  307  (Fed.),  342,  393. 

394.  43 i.  446,  469- 
Carlyle,  90. 
Camden,  57,  188. 
Carter,  164,  166. 
Carterson,  279. 
Carus,  68. 
Gary,  79,  180. 
Cassell,  146  (Fed.) 
Cave,  71. 
Cavell,  394. 
Cavendish,  306,  307  (Fed.), 

438,  491. 
Ceretic,  435. 
Chad  wick,  73,  401. 
Chamber,  295. 
Chamberlain,  249,  341,  455. 
Chancellor,  69. 
Chapman,  446,  488. 
Chaucer,  77,  92,  100,  493. 
Chesham,  307  (Fed.) 
Chetwood,  123. 
Child,  130. 
Chisman,  339. 
Chrysostom,  St.,  30. 
Cirencester,  185. 
Clapham,    68,   85,    140,    148, 

149,  150,  151,  317,  329.  330- 

335.  424- 

Clarence,  146  (Fed.) 
Clark,  144, 154,372,373,381, 44 
Clarkson,  68,  85. 
Clay,  loo,  166. 
Clayton,  249,  339,  461,  471. 
Clifford,   65,    135,    164,    251, 

276,  298,  301,  303,  304,  306, 

3  '8,  33°.  352,  438. 


Clifton,  96. 

Close,  129. 

Coates,  278,  279,  283. 

Cobden,  283. 

Cobley,  82. 

Cockshott,  281. 

Coleridge,  53. 

Colling,  181. 

Collingwood,  35,  61,  62,  239, 

392. 

Collis,  146  (Fed.) 
Collyer,  206,  221. 
Columba,  St.,  116,  293,  363. 
Commodus,  197. 
Constable,  49,  73,  75. 
Conyers,  44. 
Cook,    Coke,    Kooke,     141, 

223,  353,  4i7- 
Cooper,  68. 
Cork,  361. 
Corker,  68. 
Cottingham,  317. 
Coulthurst,  335,  336,  342. 
Cowgill,  56. 
Cowper,  236. 
Cox,  350. 
Cranbrook,  278. 
Craven,   138,  329,   370,   371, 

372,  373,  38r,  396,  397.  398, 

401,  426. 

Crawshaw,  206,  335,  414. 
Crofton,  142,  151. 
Croft,    Crofts,    73,    84,    260, 

294.  348,  414- 
Croker,  63. 
Crompton,  486. 
Cromwell,  54,  55,  146  (Fed.), 

168,  178,  441. 
Grossman,  326. 
Crosse,  461  (Fed.) 
Crossfield,  75. 
Crown,  339. 
Crowther,  69,  430. 
Cryer,  276. 
Cudworth,  195,  196,  215,  216, 

233- 

Culpepper,  180. 
Cumberland,  267,   296,   298, 

304,    330,    351,    393,    438, 
i      461  (Fed.),  476,  491. 
Cunliffe,  278,  279,  281,  284. 
Currer,    143,   245,  246,    247, 

248-9  (Fed.),  257,  258,  335, 

338,  340.  341,  44°,  477- 
Curry,  130. 
Curtis,  86. 


CuthbcTt,  St.,    81,   292,  293, 

294,  3"- 
Cutler,  178. 
Cuttriss,  384. 

DADE,  69. 

Dallin,  55. 

Darcy,  368,  369. 

Darwin,  67,  133,  135,  138. 

Davis,  442. 

Dawson,   28,  56,  69,  80,  85, 

138,  164,  1 66,  170,  260,  338, 

381,  461  (Fed.)  484. 
Day,  1 46  (Fed.) 
Dayes,  93. 
Dean,  183,  410,  420. 
Decius,  29. 
Deighton,  73. 
Demaine,  356,  3S3,  384. 
Dennison,  68. 
Denton,  169,  173. 
Devonshire,    214,    267,    306, 

307  (Fed.)   308,   315,   336, 

342,  357,  446. 
Dewhurst,  75. 
Dibb,  382. 
Dickons,  196. 
Dinsdale,  56. 
Dixon,  97,  105,  478. 
Dobson,  202,  218. 
Dodgson,  426. 
Dodsworth,  177,  292. 
Dolphin,  364,  454. 
Domitian,  186,  197. 
Donovan,  146  (Fed). 
Douglas,  257. 
Downe,  81. 
Draghton,  334. 
Drew,  62. 
Dringhel,  376,  388. 
Driver,  137. 
Dufton,  169. 
Dugdale,  177. 
Duncan,  79,  80. 
Dunn,  66,  461  (Fed.) 
Dunwell,  56. 
Dymoke,  388,  389. 
Dyneley,  66,    124,    135,    136, 

'37-  '38- 

EDDY,  438. 
Edwards,  461  (Fed.) 
Edwin,  288,  289,  292,  295. 
Egerton,  178,  307  (Fed.) 
Elenson,  161. 
Elgood,  414. 


S°9 


Flier-haw,   138. 

Kills  107,  246,  278,  454,  470. 

KllUon,  <>8,  330,   -5(17. 

Fl-ey.  210. 

FmmoU,  376. 

Fngland,  ~,<i,  128,  n>8,  330,  341. 


I   .  \IRBANK,   85. 

Fairfax,  53,  54,  55,  05,  <*>, 
71,  78,  05,  104,  i()i,  172- 
184,  --13.  281,  370,  3*1. 

Fan-all,  442. 

Farrer.  495. 

Fauconbridge,  53,   no. 

Fauvell,  297,  302. 

Fawcett,  138,  160,  258. 

Fawkener,  307  (Fed). 

Fawkes,   40,    56,   69,    79,  82, 

X3»   93-  99'    IOO>    IOI>    IO2> 

113,  in,.  128,  131     155,  215. 
Fenton,  214,  215. 
Fernehill,  295. 
Fernelay,  99. 
Ferrand,     Fanancl,    (>S,     S(>, 

i  1  8.  258,  259. 
Ffaring-ton,  420. 
Field,  206. 
Fieldhouse,  130,  279. 
Fincham,  96. 
Finlayson,  466. 
Fisher,  84,  103,  417. 
I  i-on,  67,  139,  140,  146,   148, 

'5->.  '53.  '54.  i«3-  233,  237. 
Fitz  John,  409. 
Fitzroy,  307  (Fed.) 
Fitzwilliam,  246,  247. 
Flesher,  56,  75. 
Foggitt,  442. 

Foljambe,  105,  246,  307  (Ped.) 
Folds,  438. 
Forrest,  231,  235. 
Forster,    139,    140,    146,    148, 

'.S-KS- 
Fort,  268. 

Fo-u-r,  3°7  (1'ed.)  484,  494. 
Fountaine,  415,  410. 
I'ourness,  68. 
Fowler,  442. 
Fox,  74,  82,  2*4. 
Frankland,  441. 
Freeman,  41,  106. 
Frith,  78. 
Frost,  60,  69. 


( ;  \MI«  i ,  [(«),  3ss. 

(ianu-lbar,  J(><),  275. 
(lanu-tt,   70,   79,   85,    87,    Sg, 

90,  160,  214,  4(11  (Tod  ) 
(iaiTctt,   ill. 

ii;-|ii-,   175. 
(iaunt,  52,  205. 
(  ..i\  aslon,  3(17. 
(icikc,  4Jj. 
( icorj^o,  St.,  197. 
Gerard,  354. 

G«SI  .vS.v  ,154- 

tiiffard,   105. 

(likt-Nwick,  334. 

( iildas,  27. 

Oill,    154,    if>o,  233,   234,   262, 

33<5i  .V»>-  ,w's- 
Gilliott,  388,  389. 
Gladstone,   146. 
Glradhill,   1 46  (Fed.) 
( ili-adston,  460. 
Godiva,  28.s. 
Godmade,  403. 
(  ioldsmith,  490. 
CJoldsboroug-h,  95,  125,  127. 
Gomersal,  311,  471. 
Gomme,  44 

Goodgeon,  248,  249.  331,  341. 
Gospatric,  169,  365,  388,  454. 
( ;<i-^r,  146  (Feil.) 

<">t  t.  335- 

Graham,  394. 

Grainge,    38,    195,    231,    233, 

235- 

Grandorge,  269,  323. 
Granger,  297. 
Granville,  307  (Ped.) 
Graver,  146  (Ped.) 
Gray,    40,    67,    94,    204,    271, 

377-  47(1- 
Green,    Grene,    63,    73,    146 

(Ped.),  213,  276,  435. 
Greenwell,  468. 
Greenwood,  140,  152. 
Gregory,  84,  293. 
Grenefeld,  46,  167. 
Graham,  450,  467. 
Grey,  307  (Fed.) 
Grimshawe,  430. 
Gros,  Gross,  298,  366. 
Guthrum,  492. 
Gyles,  183. 

HADRIAN,  29,  194,  430. 
Haggas,  339,  341. 
Haigh,  33,  41,  185,  199. 


Hal.-,  366. 

Hales, 

I  laltdni,  3X7,  492. 

Halifax,  <>o,  86. 

Hall,  56,   184.  280. 

Halliday,  307  (Ped.) 

Halton,  297. 

llamond,     Hammond,     414, 

425,  471,  .)<,->. 
I  laiT-uii,  75. 
Hannam,  73. 
Harbottle,  494. 
1  larding,  326. 
Hardisl 

llardulf,  388,  407. 
Hardy,  278. 
Harewood,     IDS,    28^,    307 

(Fed.) 

I  Iargra\-e,  369. 
Hargreaves  218,  225. 
Hargrove,  96. 
Harker,  415,  441. 
Harper,  398. 

Harrison,  68,  204,  338,  484. 
Harthacanute,  329. 
Hart,  67,  69,  161,  416. 
Hartley,  55,  (.7,  143,  202,  326. 
Hartlington,      He  nlington, 

297.  3-^3.  35-'-  3'so.  381,  397, 

487. 

Hart  well,   146  (I1. 
Hnslani,  75. 
Hatfield,  69. 
Haryngton,   100. 
llauxwoi'lh,  21 1. 
Hawkesljury,  246,  307  (Ped.) 
Hawksworth,  66,  83,  99,  101, 

146  (Fed.),  161. 
Hayvvood,  131. 
Head,  339. 
Hebblethwaite,  148. 
Hebden,  297,  388,  397,  438, 

454.  455- 

Heber,    206,    210,    213,    244, 
245,  206,  324,  381,  487,  491, 

494- 
Heelis,     Heles,     146    (Ped.), 

335.  402. 

Helena,  St.,  29,  207,  244,  391. 
Henderson,  264,  484. 
Herbert,  177. 
Heiv,  St.,  33,  293- 
Herodotus,  229. 

Hrrcules    IQI,    23<). 

Hewitt,  414,  426. 
H<-wsi»n,  19. 


Hev,  327. 

Jewitt,  432. 

Heye,  397. 

Jerome,  St.,  30. 

1  1,  \  \\nod,    137,  400. 

John,  431. 

Hilda,  33,  293. 

John,  St.,  198. 

Hill,  297. 

Johnson,  63,  100,  113. 

Hinl,  72,  86,  180. 

Johnston,  82,  317,  322. 

Hitch,  112,  113. 

Jones,  405. 

H.ibson,  56. 

Jordon,  1  13. 

Hoddington,  56. 

Hodgson,  211,  257,  467. 

KAYK,  90. 

Hogg,  56. 

Kearnon,  420. 

Holgate,  Holdgate,  417,  442, 

Kelly,  75. 

Holinshed,  379. 

Kemble,  458. 

Holgill,  64. 

Kendall,    170,   258,   263,    264 

Holkar,  353. 

(Fed.)  268. 

Hollins,  55. 

Kennedy,  229. 

Holmes,    123,   21.,   233,   335, 

Kerton,  356. 

356- 

Kighley,  94,  166,  297. 

Hopkinson,  20,  482. 

King,  175. 

Hopton,  iir. 

Kingsley,  481. 

Home,  476. 

Kipling,  451. 

Horner,  330,  477. 

Kirby,  160,  181. 

Horsfall,   73,    142,    144,    151, 

Kirkby,    46,    in,    169,    204, 

160,  285. 

393.  394- 

Hothfield,  298. 

Kirkeby  Malghedale,  334. 

Howard,  307  (Fed.),  326. 

Kirkeman,  277. 

1  lo\vrs,  348. 

Kitchen,  Hitching,  304,  417. 

Howey,  326. 

Knolle,  441,  476,  487. 

Hubba,    293,   387.   417,   475, 

Knowles,  348,  488. 

491. 

Kyne,  204. 

Hudson,  55,  122,  146  (Fed.), 

Kvrkehowse,  353. 

339- 

Hughes,  425. 

LACON,  66. 

Humphrey,  69. 

Lacy,  325. 

Husse,  438. 

Lamb,  72,  129. 

Hutchinson,  55,  105,  440. 

Lambert,  54,    104,    112,   216, 

Hutton,  49,  384. 

394.  4i7»  430.  438- 

Hydemann,  461  (Fed.) 

Lancaster,  303,  356,  394. 

Landseer,  346. 

IBBETSON,  Hibbetson,  81,82, 

Langton,  283. 

170,  181,  184,  441,  495. 

Lansdowne,  307  (Fed.) 

lies,  326. 

Lappenberg,  59. 

Ina,  399. 

Lascelles,  82,  307  (Fed.)  381. 

Ingham,  53,  124. 

Lawson,  74,  21  1,  212. 

Ingleby,  122,  459,  471. 

Lawton,  392,  409. 

Inman,   370,    383,    384,    470, 

Laycock  95. 

476. 

Leach,  Leech,  86,  326,  497. 

Irenside,  85. 

Lee,  282,  441,  451. 

Ivar,  492. 

Leeds,  307  (Fed.) 

Leland,  94,  487. 

JACKMAN,   249. 

Lelay,  Leathley,  42,  no,  in, 

Jackson,  55,  87,  00,  .M.'. 

136,  107. 

Jaques,  494. 

Lepage,  356. 

Jemmett,  146  (Fed.) 

Leyland,  137,  194,  459. 

Jenkinson,  72,  144,  352. 

Lister,  211,  216,  223,  271,  278, 

Jennings,  85. 

283,  335.  356- 

Lismore,  307  (Pcd.) 
Little,  237. 

Limberger,  146  (Fed.) 
Lodge,  496,  497. 
Lofthouse,  276. 
Lottus,  in. 
Long,  398. 

Longbottom,  254,  312. 
Longfellow,  85,  86,  120. 
Longley,  144. 
Longvillers,  303. 
I.owcocke,  257,  268,  273. 
Lowe,  384,  461. 
Lowson,  383,  384. 
Lucas,  449,  485. 
Lumb,  382. 
Lutyens,  326. 
Lyndley.  in,  125. 
Lyttelton  307  (Fed. ) 

MAC.MILLAN,  449. 
Magnus,  64. 
Magmisson,  412. 
Maitland,  76. 
Mai  ham,  297,  469. 
Malthouse,  378. 
Manchester,  307  (Fed.) 
Manne,  276. 
Manners,  174. 
Margaret,  St.,  391. 
Margersion,  120,  210,  223. 
Markes,  180. 
Mark,  St.,  198. 
Marshall,  74,  213,  339. 
Martin,  87,  93,  297. 
Marton,  476. 
Masham,  279,  283. 
Mason,  334,  440. 
Matthew,  St.,  198. 
Maude,  85,  125,  140,  143,  146 

(Fed.)   147,    245,  246,   248, 

249,  258,  264,  416. 
Mauleverer,     141,    297,    317, 

329.  33°- 

Maunsel,  140,  173. 
Mawson,  73,  223. 
McLandsborough,  89,  93. 
Maxwell,  49. 
M earing,  204. 
Meredith,  129,  130. 
Merryweather,  80. 
Merton,  50. 
Metcalfe,  166,  379,  380,  381, 

425,  430,  446,  456,  499. 
Mexborough,  124. 
Miall,  74. 


Michael,  St.,  411, 
MiddJebrook,  i<)4,  i><s- 
Middled  m,  40,  53,    158,  204, 
-•jo.  --.17,  ->4<>.  252,  J.s.l, 

334- 

Midgley,  259,  -'Si,  4-58. 

Milne,  471. 

MiliiiM-,  184,  335. 

Milthorpe,   129,   146  (Peel.) 

Milton,  (/o. 

Mitchell,   101. 

Milton,  216. 

MIX-HIT,  205. 

Moliaut,  2<)^. 

Monck,  307  (Pcii.) 

Monk-,  3-58. 

Montague,  348. 

Montalte,  iii,  247,  248. 

Moody,  73. 

Moorby,  476. 

Moon,  Moone,  319,  327. 

Moore.  330,  384. 

Moorhouse,  247,  249,  327, 
.135-  337-  -II8  (Ped.)  340, 
34'.  .-542,  359.  3/0,  47«- 

Morlev,  267,  317,  329. 

Morris   141,  486. 

Morton,  136. 

Mosley,   55,    141. 

Movers,  429. 
Moiinsey,  28,  73. 
Mowbray,  49,  269. 
Muniford,  148. 
Mundella,   152. 
Murray,  490. 
Musgrave,  i)_>,  281. 
Myers  50,    138,  484. 

NAI  rscn,  146  (Ped.) 

Neale,  56. 

Nelson,  377. 

Xennius,  31,   185,  435. 

Nessfield,  269. 

Neville,    303,    V4,    366,   368, 

380,  47.s,  494- 
Newall,  68,  05. 
Newby,  122,  335. 
Nc\\M>m,   184. 
New-lead,  71. 
Newton,  416. 
Nicholas,  St.,  208,  277. 
Nichols,  461  (Ped.) 
Nicholls,  431. 
Nightingale,  340,  342,  343. 
North,   138. 
Norton,  304,  425,  483. 


Northampton,  307  (IVd.) 

Nowell,   410,   419. 
N'ussie,   31)5. 

ODDY,  284. 
Ogden,  262. 
Oglethorpe,  176. 

Olal,  St.,    107. 

Oldfield,  335. 

Oliver,  08. 

Orm,  26/1,  360,  364. 

(  )sborne,  307  (Ped. ) 

(  >s\v;dd,  St.,  32. 

Otho,  35. 

Otley,  50,  t>8,  85,   161,  310. 

Otterburne,  330 

Outhwaite,   146. 

PAGE,  56. 
Paley,  417. 
Palmes,  63,  66. 

Paris,  356. 

Parker,  104,  248,  431. 

Parkinson,  68,  69,  146  (Ped.) 

1 80,  281,  282. 
Parr,  278. 
Pattle,  1 46  (Ped.) 
Paulinus,    31,    59,     1 16,    197, 

207,  215, 
Pawson,  495. 
Payne,  51. 
Pay  t  fin,  157. 
Peacock,  53. 
1'eale,  54. 
Pecke,  OS. 

Peel,  336- 

Peir.se,  384. 

Pell,   134,   103. 

Percy,  108,  i  18,  125,  i(x),  203, 

204,  266,  303,  367,  436,  480, 

489,  494. 

Peter,  St.,  31,  453. 
Petrie,  236. 
Pettigrew,   197. 
Petty,    Petty!,    260,   2(>S,    327, 

35"- 

Phillip,  330. 
Pickard,  265,  478. 
Pickersgill,  278. 
Pilking'ton,  281. 
Pinkeney,  296,  297. 
Pipin,  34. 
Plato,  240. 
Platt,  477,  478. 
Plumpton,  246,  266,  267,  297, 

437-  439.  467-  468. 


Pli-.sini^ton,  204. 
Poictevin,   i  10. 
Pollard,  227,  249. 
Poole, 

Popplewell,      161,     210,     259 
260,   262. 

Portland,  307  (Ped.) 

Powell,  56. 

Preston,  336,  372,  402. 

Price,    [Si. 

Prior,  2(>3,  267,  398. 

Procter,  Proctor,  05,  <X>.  3<">8, 

372,  407,  462. 
Ptolemy,   185,  428. 
Pullan,  50,  258,  251),  2(«j,  208, 

280. 
Pulleyn,    66,     122,    141,    146 

(Ped.)   140,    158. 

Purey-Cust,  435. 

RADCMFFE,  425. 

Raine,  32,  35,  67. 

Raistrick,   131, 

Raleigfh,  432. 

Ramsay,  35,  320,  374. 

Ramsden,  105,  487,  494. 

Ramshaw,  87. 

Randies,  i^s. 

Rankin,  458. 

Rathmell,  438,  456. 

Rawlinson,  128. 

Rawson,   138,   141). 

Raykes,  257. 

Rayner,  402. 

Read,   Reed,  73,  33^. 

Rcdmayne,  414. 

Rennard,  56. 

Reynold,  Reynolds,  21  i,  486. 

Richardson,   165,  2-55,  415. 

Rickards,  372. 

Rille-.ton,  295,  323. 

Riley,  77,  270,  399. 

Ripon,    Hishop  of,    i  ic),    183, 

-'i.v  .',73- 

Ripon,  Marquis  of,   i  ^4. 
Ritchie,  70,  71,  74. 
Rhode-,    ;;(),  (17,   Si,    136,     137, 

146  (Ped.),  161,  201,  394. 
Rhys,  431. 
Roberts,  415. 
Robertson,  68. 
Robinson,  19,  67,  69,  105,  260, 

290,  419. 

Roebuck,  442,  487,  489. 
Rogers,  86,  246. 
Rolleston,  461  (Ped.) 


512 


Romelli,  Rumelli,  in,  224, 
275,  290,  294,  295,  322,  364, 
366,  496. 

Roose,  288,  410. 

Roundell,  325. 

Roucliffe,  267,  437,  438. 

Rouse,  1 60. 

Rowley,  210. 

Rudd,  68. 

Rudder,  64. 

Rumbold,  St.,  225. 

Rushforth,  249. 

Ruskin,  155,  346,  479. 

Russell,  330,  441. 

Rycroft,  335. 

Rypley,  476. 

Ryther,  175. 

ST.  ALBANS,  307  (Fed.) 

Sale,  334. 

Salt,  152,  153. 

Sandham,  283. 

Sauer,  297. 

Saville,  166. 

Saxey,  72. 

Saxton,  251. 

Scarborough,  268,  440. 

Scales,  168,  173. 

Scargill,  63. 

Scott,  55,  230,  339. 

Scriven,  384. 

Seebohm,  297. 

Semon,  216. 

Senior,  156,  220,  224,  283. 

Serjeantson,  461,  (Fed.) 

Settle,  143. 

Sewall,  67. 

Sewell,  228. 

Severus,  187,  188,  431. 

Share,  416,  419. 

Sharp,  86,  259,  260. 

Shaw,  29,  47,  51,  58,  86,  87, 

96.   158,  213,  231,  460,  461 

(Fed.) 

Sheepskanks,  420. 
Sheffield,  141. 
Sherburne,  53. 
Sheriton,  66. 
Shertcliffe,  461  (Fed.) 
Shuffrey,  19,  483. 
Sidgwick,  Sedgwick,  99,  294, 

348,  414. 
Silvester,  137. 

Sim.  336,  339.  375- 
Simpson,  75,  335,  483. 
Skachard,  128. 


Skayll,  353. 

Skeat,  409. 

Skelton,  54,  68,  215. 

Sling-sby,  494. 

Smith,  96,  128,  137,  138,  202, 

210,  276,  353,  355,  416,  417, 

476. 

Snawden,  56. 
Snowdon,     Snowden,     210, 

214,  303- 

Somerscales,  296. 
Soppitt,  442,  448. 
Sotehill,  354,  437,  438. 
Southwell,  339. 
Sparrow,  53. 
Speight,  Speht,  Speyht,  206, 

207,  248,  257,  296,  338,  339, 

356,  423,  426,  432,  433,  439, 

462. 

Spence,  88,  166,  481. 
Spencer,  281,  307  (Fed.) 
Sperm,  56. 
Spicer,  146  (Fed.) 
Spurritt,  335,  378. 
Stables,  56. 
Standish,  175. 
Stansfeld,  211. 

Stansfield,  158,  221,  460,  461 
(Fed.),  486. 
Stanley,  68,  165. 
Stanyforth,  105. 
Stavert,   369,   372,    393,    397. 
Stead    122,  136,  157,  158,  326. 
Stedman,  144. 
Steele,  270. 

Stephenson,  218,  461  (Fed.) 
Sterne,  149. 
Stevenson,  76. 
Stockdale,  397,  401,  438. 
Stocks,  56,  68. 
Stopham,  163,  164,  166. 
Story,  304. 
Stott,  130,  335. 
Stotte,  276. 
Stourton,  253. 
Street,  273. 

Stubbs,  27,  85,  184,  191,  341. 
Stuart,  56. 
Suffolk,  299. 
Swallow,  130. 
Sweet,  433. 
Swithenbank,  384. 
Swyer,  276. 
Sykerham,  63. 

TACITI-S,  42,  465. 


Talbot,  267. 
Tanner,  50,  94,  410. 
Taylor,  68,  74,  134,  137,  200, 

335- 

Teale,  72. 
Tebbs,  56. 
Tempest,  141,  295,  304,  380, 

388,  389,  407,  414,  467. 
Tennant,  67,  86,  87,  397. 
Tertullian,  30,  191,  397. 
Terry,  231. 
Tesdaile,  45. 

Thackerey,  73,  85,  184.  341. 
Thanet,  342. 
Thompson,    53,  55,  68,    166, 

278,  280,  335,  338. 
Thoresby,  38,  49,  93,  133,  189. 
Thornber,  336. 
Thornton,  330. 
Thorn,  389,  402,  453. 
Thorpe,  389. 

Threshfield,  423,  424,  466. 
Thurkilby,  204. 
Thurstan,  49,  50,  74. 
Thwaites,  63,  174,  175. 
Tiddeman,  404,  442. 
Timbil,  173. 
Todd,  122,  335. 
Toller,  417. 
Tomlinson,  128,  129. 
Topham,    Tophan,    56,    394, 

401,  476. 
Torbrand,  163. 
Torre,  67,  95. 
Trajan,  194,  465. 
Trussebut,  410. 
Trower,  69 
Tunstall,  90. 

Turner,  103,  104,  346,  479. 
Tussaud,  218. 
Turpin,  330. 
Twistleton,  158,  159. 
Tyson,  42,  109,  134,  275,  412, 
436. 

ULCHEL,  42,  109,  169. 
Ulf,  388. 
Ulphus,  179. 
Umpleby,  257,  322. 

VARLEY,  395,  396,  415. 

Vavasour,  66,  82,  93,  99,  143, 
144,  157,  164,  165,  166,  169, 
175.  213,  275.  276,  277,  335. 

Vere,  53. 

Vesci,  135,  163,  164,  409,  413. 


Yi  -paslan,   i<>4. 
Virki-rs,  2iS. 
\*illi«-rs,   179. 

\\'.\DK,   s'>.  1 0(1,  144,  218,  225, 

247,  24.*-!,  27(1,  4<>X,  469. 
Waddilove,  397. 
Wainmau.    \\ravnfinan,   271, 

334.  335- 
Wakt-man,   192. 
Waldstein,  29. 
Walker,  68,  70,  7;,,  75,  So,  Hi, 

85,   131,   141,   [46,    172,   414, 

410. 

Walkingfham,  330. 
Wall.  335- 
\\'allai-c,  205. 
Walsingham,  330. 
Waltrt>,  Waters,  378,   402. 

Wandsworth,  17!). 
Warburton,  96,  112,  189,  196. 
\\"arcl,    40,    44,    63,    85,    204, 

205,    200,    335,    455. 

Wardell,  235. 

Wardeman,  107. 

Warwick,  48(1. 
Wasti  11,  384 
Waterhouse,  122. 

Watkinsim,    146  (IVd.),   211, 

335-  336- 
Watson,     iq,     123,     124,     140, 

1 55- 
\Va\  it-,   173,  174. 


\\"»-atln-rln-a(l,  335. 
\\'.-l)l.-y,    140  (IV'I.) 
\\"<-l)-.(cr,    r<),  77. 
XX'cdiiiorc,    151. 
\\YMiy,   int.   tH2. 
U'.'lls   jot  (I'.-d.) 
\Vriltwortll,    <>t\    I  _'S,  325. 

Wesley,  71,  .^7,  477. 
West,  53,  55,  33*. 
\\Y-tmorland,  476. 
\\Y*t<>n,   167. 
\\'f>tf<iyd,    169. 
\\Ytlici-ill,   181. 
\VliartDti,  221,  260,  354. 
Wheelhouse,  336. 
Whetelay,  221. 
\\'hitakcr,  50,  67,  Hi,  ,S2,  138, 

144,    152,  156,  iHH,  2X3,  285, 

34<>,  4tH,  420,  426,  4<u. 
\Vhiti-hcad,  50,  73,  203. 
\Vhithatii,  t^H. 
Whitting'ton,  124. 
\Vickhaiu,  326. 
\\'i.t;-i^ins,   146  (l\-d.) 
\\'iltVid,  St.,  33,  35,   191,   u>7, 

198,  226,  399. 
Williamson,  260. 
Williams,    105. 
Wilkinson,  56,  66,  67,  85,  1^5, 

96,  249,  441. 
Wilks,  440. 
Wilson,  6g,  73,   142,  149,  167, 

23«,  397.  4'3.  425.  4»".  4(" 
(Peel.) 


Willi.,   153. 
Wilson-Todd,   i«i. 
Windsor,  </i. 
Wint,  324. 
\\Yfitffbuni,  335. 
Withni-ll,  394. 
Wnodlmusi.',   129. 
Wood,  66,  H6,   130,    173,   213, 

335- 

Wo.)dd,    247,   489,   494,    407. 
499. 

WolsflcV,    394. 

\\Y)rds\vorth,   317,   321),    34(1, 

480. 

Wormald,   1X3. 
Worth,  231. 
Wortlay,  03. 
Wort  ley,  277. 
Wrangham,  102. 
Wrav,   143. 
Wraythall,  417. 
Wright,  2Ht,  42g,  475. 
WriiThlMin,  494. 
Wult  here,  4<)2. 
\\YiNtan,  37. 
Wyley,  5''- 
Wyvill,   tHi,  183. 


York,  Archhp.  of,  37,  3<S,  41, 

144,    199,    203,  205,   212,   213, 
225,    270. 

Yorki',  369,  459,  468. 
Young1,  241,  369,  378,  402. 


GENERAL     INDEX. 


The  liifiires  in  hcai'v  type  denote  tin-  page  where  the  place  is  specially  described. 

ABERKORD,  7^.                          Bainbridge,  205,  431.  Bolton    Priory,    Records   of 

Addingham,  27,92,  118,  164    Ballochulish,  87.  Eight  Centuries,  298. 

I9v  248,256,  27O,  337.          Bannockburn,   113,   120,  205,  (Lanes),  338. 

Adel,  26,  27,  30,  77,  rot,  112,        276,  300,  322.  Percy,  174,  176,   178. 


Baptism,  pre-Christian,  412.        Woods,  309,  345. 
Harden,  299,  347,  357,  370.       Bordley,  389,  393,  4fx.i. 

Forest,  356,  360. 

Tower,  350-55. 
Bardsey,  136,  247. 


Borrans,  411,  431,  475. 
Boston,  72,  360. 
Botany,  107,  127,  159,165,311, 
362,  385,  409,  442,  486,  498. 
Boroughbridge,  170,  414. 


i23,  '40-  '59- 
Africa,     138,     177,     189,    23 

433- 

Aldborough,  140,  185,   186. 

Alien  Priories,  410. 

Allerton  Mauleverer,  43,  49,    Barnsley,  99. 

2:53.  Barnard  Castle,  189. 

Almes  Cliff,  92,  93,  108,  230,   Beamsley,  107,  149,  267,  275,   Boundaries,  199,  244,  254. 

441.  305,  317,  327,  424.  Bowes,  188. 

Alnwick,  43.  Beacon,  255   441. 

Alrestbrd,  419.  Beckermonds,  496. 

Amerdale,  480,  496.  Betston,  356. 

America,    27,    70,    120,    180,    Bentham,  378. 

238,  240,  377,  406,  419.  Ben  Rhydcling,  221,  231,  242. 

Anecdotes,  87,  96,    154,    168,    Berwick,  Barwick,  295. 

211.  223,  283,  309,  310,  342,   Berwick-on-Tweed,  51. 

346,  358,  376,  399,  456,  478,   Beverley,  37,  46,  50,  105. 

479.  Bewcastle,  256. 

Anglo-Saxon  settlements,  41.    Bewerlev,  369. 
Angling,  470,  471.  Bickerton,  38,  39,  40. 

Angram,  379,  479.  Bilbrough,  176,  179. 

Animals,  prehistoric,  26,  403,    Bingley,   32,   41,    51,   59,   68,    Brimham,  361. 

421,  464.  74,    86,   90,    125,    136,    141,    Bronze,  early  use  of,  429. 

Appleby,  353,  354,  374,  497.          151,  160,  175,  196,  197,  211,    Broughton,  339,  379,  388. 
Appletrewick,  297,  302,   329,        242,  247,  248,  258,  259,  370.    British  Museum,   113,   149. 

360,    365,    381,    397,    459,    Black  Beck,   Fell,   Hill,   199,   British  trackways,  27. 

476,  477.  244,  255,  272,  290,  449.  Buckden,  486,  487.  497. 

Appleton,  no,  174,  175,  179,   Blackpool,  127.  Bulmer,  323,  365. 

204,  300.  Blackstone  Edge,   196. 

Blea  Tarn,  364. 
Blencow,   166. 

Bolton,  Early  History  of,  287. 
Hall,  306. 
Prior  of,  50,  367. 
Priory  (Abbey),  50,  56,  68, 


Bracewell,  407. 

Bradford,  44,  51,  52,  59,  68, 
80,  86,  136,  149,  151,  152, 
165,  196,  215,  233.  258,  278, 
326,  34i.  395-  4 '6-  440,  4.S°- 
4S8- 

Bradley,  392,  467. 

Bramham,  32. 

Bramhope,  27,  42,  45,  66,  67, 
70,  78,  124,  133,  272,  412. 

Brass  Castle,  28,  259. 

Brearhaugh,  161,  273. 


Ardsley,  403. 

Armada,  227,  460. 

Armagh,  141. 

Anility,  69,  in. 

Arncliffe,  299,  436,  466,  480, 

481,  482,  492. 
Arthington,  45,  72,   128,   135, 

•73- 

Asia,  177,  208,  231. 
Askwith,    49,    92,    166,    175, 

176,  263. 
Austwick,  356. 

BADSWORTH,  176. 
Baildon,   38,  39,   41,  42,  46, 
SS,  60. 


Burials  face  downwards,  279. 
in  stalagmite,  465. 
in  trees,  406. 
in  woollen,  247,  417. 
upright,  317. 

Burley,  28,  46,  53,  66,  67,  72, 
81,  139.  167,  203,  249,  286. 
105,    125,   205,   208,    256,   Burley     Wood-Head,      156, 
269,    275,   309,  335,   375,        157,  159. 
389,  410,  424.  Burnham  Thorpe,  377. 

Priory  Compotus,  300,  382.   Burnley,  392. 
Priory,      Description      of,   Burnsall,  323,  365,  366,  369, 

3ii-  37°.  37'.375.378,  383.  387- 

Priory,  foundation-charter       440,  454,  499- 

of,  295.  Burton,  46. 

Priory,   Mason   Marks  at,  Burton  Constable,  181. 

319,  395.  By  land,  381. 


5'  5 


CALAIS,  51. 

Calderdale,  _•;,('• 

( 'alev  1  lall,    102,    129,    130. 

Calverley,  08. 

Cambridge,   196,  308. 

Canada,   136,   160. 

Canterburv,  450. 

Carlisle,  293,  330,  420,  469. 

Carlton,  258,   302,  330. 

Carucate  in  Domesday,    134, 

16,3,  200, 
Cast  Icy,    27,     no,    124.     128, 

299,  37*. 
Caton,  96. 
Cat  (Jill,  290. 
(  'at ton,  310. 
Catterick,  215. 
Cawood,  37-  4.S.  4".  4<»- 
Cavendish    Memorial    Foun- 
tain, 306. 

Celtic  bird-names,  2^7,  296. 
churches,     n6,     191,    207, 

230,  4(1--. 

housesteads,  2<>o,  411. 
numerals,  4-52. 
-pinning,  405. 
tumuli,   255,    272,  2^7,  3113, 

421,  402. 

Chaddesden,  437. 
( 'heshire,  245. 
Chester,   186. 
Chimnies,  origin  of,  37(1. 
Christ,  arms  of,  j-,s. 
Christian  relics,  early,  30. 
symbolism,    118,    100,    197, 

198,  2.34,  ^3*- 

Christianity,  early,  29,  .30,  31, 
.V-    33.    5's-    '<>'.    192,    .07, 
240,  24 1 ,  270,  .36,3,  435. 
Roman,   190,  197. 
Churches   dedication  ol,  .32, 

5»,  207. 

Civil   War,   5.3,   54,    100,   1.36, 
if>8,  i7<s,  179,  280,  ,305,  ,373, 
.37*.  383,  4(,s. 
relics  of,  54,   104. 
( 'leckheaton,  30.3. 
(  leethorpe,  300. 
Cleveland,  211,  .32.3,  451. 
Clifford,  176. 
Clifton,  38. 
Clithcrof,  1 10. 
Clockmaker,  early,  267. 
Close  House,  337. 
Coaching,  217,  271. 
Collinyham,  32,  07,  <>2,  13'). 


Col  lie,    173,    iSS, 

Connemara,  127. 

Collision,  3<j2,  31)4,  430,  459. 

Cononli-y,  2(X>,  2(W,  303,  325, 

,VO,  330. 
Cove  Hole,  432. 
Coven  lale,    478. 
( 'overhaul,   476,  477. 
Cow    ami    Calf    Rocks,    202, 

228,  229,  232,  233,  361. 
Cowling,  2<>9. 
( 'owner  (  'oles,    ^>S. 

Cracoe,  299,  3-Vv  .3.>7.  .V>4- 
Craven  Mutter,  425. 

Heifer,   335. 

I  hinting  in,  471. 

Nat.  Si  x-iei  \-,  405. 
Cray,  489,  490,  495. 
Creskeld,    I2S,    135,    138. 
Crosses,  early  sculpt.,  jc>,  35, 

41,   62,    119,    166,    194,   197, 

226,  390. 

Crucifix,  Norman,  410. 
( 'uerdale,  492. 
Customs,    old,    83,    135,     171, 

2IO,    212,   247,   282,   355,  398, 
411,   418,    419,    432,    447. 


Druids'    Circle--,     j-i,     J^M, 

430,  496. 
Dublin,  62,  225. 
Dumbarton,  33. 
Durham,  323,   397. 

MAST  MARION,  320. 

Kdensor,  297,  437. 

Kdinbro'  249. 

Elam,  30,  136,   190,   197. 

Klboltoti,  404,  4<>v 

Klmete,  30,  31,  191,  225,  404, 

435- 

l-Jsinore,   145. 

|-:is|ack,     Helslac,      170,    338, 
339-  34°,  44'.  469- 

i-'-iy,  303. 

l-lmbsay,    28c),    290,   334,   405, 

43,v 

Wake,  291 ,  303. 

Priory,  2c>2,  295. 

l-'alr,  303. 
Ivscrick,   102. 
Kscrofl,  242, 
ICsholt,  38,  48,  53,  03,  83,  142, 

'57-  ->03.  354- 
Mshton,    (xj,     142,    30(1,    381, 

4-25-  477- 


DAI.  i.  HKAH,  364. 

Fsk,  1  08. 

Dalton-Michael,  494. 

Fskdalo,  420. 

1  )anesmoor,  329. 

Fton,   102. 

Darlev,  401. 

Darlington,   181,  247,  305. 

FAIKII  s,  230,  233. 

Darmstadt,   145. 

1  lole,  432. 

Dartmoor,  239. 

Farnley,    38,   40,    54,   03,   (jo, 

Dearham,  .397. 

82,  83,  1,5,  (,(>,  99.   i  10,  i  1.3. 

Dent,   127,   167. 

"9-  '-^5.  '55.   l()l- 

Denton,  38,  53,  81,    109,  172. 

Farnlev  Wood  Plot,  55. 

313- 

Farslev,  218. 

1  )enton,  Co.   Lincoln,    lor. 

Felliscliffe,    123. 

Derby,  50. 

I-'ewston,  95,    141,  370. 

I  )erbv-hire,  91,  92. 

Field-names,     28,     108,    431, 

Devil's  Apronful,  303. 

449,  45*.  4<\-?.  4s"- 

1  >e\  onshire,    148,   231. 

Fiji,  230,  240. 

1  )i  wsbury,  59,  393. 

Flasb\-,  2(x). 

Dog  (Dob)   Park,    108,    i  oo. 

I'lasby  Fell,  93. 

Doiicaster,  78,   124,   148.   TOO, 

l-'leur-de-lis,  lirst  use  ol,  494. 

384. 

Flodden,   159.  355,  441. 

Douk  Cave,  479. 

Follifoot,   i  13. 

Dowkabottom      Cave,      430, 

Fountains    Abbev,    99,    125, 

404. 

170,  382,  389,  409,  459,  491. 

Down  ham,   135. 

Foxhope,  467. 

1  )own  holme,  381. 

Frescoes,  64,  277. 

Draughton,  164,  195,264,271, 

289,  299,  331,  333,  440. 

(iargrave,  249,  335,  336,  341, 

Dreblev.  375.  388. 

37".  4  '  4- 

Garlands    in    churches,    400, 

493- 

Garsington,  436. 
Geolog-y,   92,  227,  228,    251, 

333-  364.  47«'  474- 
Gereburg-  wapent.,  39,  42. 
Gibbeter,  330. 
Gildersome,  75. 
Gisburne,  55,  437. 
Glastonbury,  116,  465. 
Gledstone,  325. 
Glusburn,  268,  299,  440. 
Gowthwaite,  401. 
Grassing'ton,    189,    195,    241, 

267,  271,  372,  403,  412,  423, 

*27,  43.S- 
Grassing-ton   Moor,  448,  449, 

467. 

Great  Whernside,  93,  479. 
Greenhovv  Hill,  430,  450. 
Grimwith,  388. 
Guisboroug-h,  453. 
Gunnerside,  387, 
Guiseley,  39,  40,  41,  46,  52, 

60,69,  74.  79.  "2,  i'3.  '33. 

161,  167,  198,  259. 

HALEY  HILL,  469. 

Halifax,    59,    161,    194,    247, 

339.  355- 
Halton,   288,   289,    297,    326, 

334.  338. 

Halton  Gill,  481,  484. 
Hampsthwaite,  195. 
Hanlith,  380,  387,  423. 
Harden  Head,  460. 
Harewood,  92,  129,  130,  161, 

175.  ->47- 

Harrogfate,  79,  105,  124. 
Hartlepool,  141. 
I lartling-ton,  369,377,379,380. 
Harwood,  450. 
Hawkswick,  356,  379,  481. 
Hawksworth,  27,  38,  55,  66, 

ior,  103,  161,  243. 
Hawkstone,  161. 
Hazlevvood,  65,  164,  299,  331, 

335.  44 1  • 

Headingley,  131. 
Healaugh,  33. 
Hearth-Tax,  56. 
Heathfield,  320. 

Hebden,  297,  388.,  411,  453. 
Heights  of  Mountains,  22. 

Roads,  &c.,  24. 

Towns,  &c.,  23. 


Hell  Hole,  384,  458. 
1  lelling-don,  124. 
Hemingboroug'h,  100. 
Heselden,  467,  491. 
1  letlon,  3<Sr,  407. 
Hexhani,  198,  208. 
llcysham,   115. 
Hig-h  houses,  24,  498. 
Hilboroug-h,  377. 
Hodder  Bridge,  55. 
Hole  House,  376. 
Hollin  Hall,  210,  221,  246,  329. 
Holy-Wells,  29,  172,  183,215, 
244,  282,  293,  390,  402,  444, 

453- 

Hornby,  303. 
Horsforth,  31,  81. 
Hooton  Pag'nell,  71,  124. 
Horsham,  87. 
Howber  Hill,  257. 
Ilowden,  384. 
Hubbercove,  387,  417. 
Hubberholme,  487,  488,  491. 
Huddersheld,  28,  393. 

k  i:  AGE,  92,  229,  242,  360, 

407,  465,  470. 
Iceland,  461. 
Idle,  326,  460. 
Ilkley,  27,  39,  59,  77,  79,  86, 

92,  150,  185,  258,  437,  473. 
Ilkley,  Bath  Charity,  154. 

Church,  207,  267. 

Coaches,  217. 

Danish  Mint,  199. 

Grammar  School,  212. 

Hospital,  214,  216. 

Land  cultivation,  200. 

Market-charter,  204. 

Modern,  201. 

Museum,  21 1,  215. 

Name  of,  186. 

Prehistoric,  185. 

Roman,  186-197. 

Semon  Conv.  Home,  216. 
Ing-thorpe,  324,  325. 
Ing-leboro',  441. 
Ireland,  192,  242,  317. 
Isle  of  Axholme,  269. 
Isle  of  Man,  178,  231,  475. 

JACK  LAND,  449. 
Jacobite   rebellion,   56,   206, 
357- 

KALEGARTH,  367. 


Keig-hley,    Kig-hley,   74,   175, 
184,     197,    236,     280,     338, 

339.  34'- 

Kensington,  181. 
Keswick,  480. 
Keswick  (Wetherby),  299. 
Kettlewell,  30,  299,  427,  459, 

473. 

Kex  Beck,  332. 
Kexby,  44. 
Kilburn,  77,  93,  389. 
Kildwick,  227,  249,  268,  339, 

342,  462,  469. 
Killingbeck,  131,  299. 
Killinghall,  221. 
Kilnsey,    86,   230,   365,    433, 

440,  464. 

Kilns,  ancient,  381. 
Kirkby    Malham,    128,    372. 

378.' 

Kirkby  Malzeard,  99,  269. 
Kirkby  Overblow,  32,  258. 
Kirk  Hammerton,  105,  1 16. 
Kirklees,  393. 
Kirkstall,  135,  136,  218. 
Knaresbro',  44,  52,  66,    101, 

1 1 2,  203,  266,  280,  402. 
Knave  Knoll  Hole,  405. 
Knights  of  St.  John,  379. 

Templars,  252. 
Kytelwylle,  475. 

LADYSMITH,  307. 
Lake-dwellings,  229,  465. 
Lancaster,  96,  115,  254,  289. 
Langbar,  235,  256,  257,  260. 
Lang-strothdale,     247,     486, 

491. 

Lead-mines,  450. 
Leathley,  102,  1O7,  127,  143, 

1 66,  221,  263,  379,  462,  486. 
Leeds,  44,  56,  72,  78,  87,  95, 

102,  107,  138,  141,  147,  176, 

285,  451. 

Leeds  (Kent)  180. 
Lenchwick,  381. 
Leprosy,  50,  51,  94. 
Leyburn,  475. 
Limber  Mag-na,  455. 
Limerick,  326. 
Lincoln,  420. 

Lindley,  39,  63,  100,  107,  1 1 1. 
Ling-  Park,  264. 
Linton    (Craven),    389,    390, 

394.  395.  *09'  425. 426, 436, 

440,  441. 


5 '7 


I.intnn  (\Vethcrby),   170. 
Litton,  480. 

Littondale,  480,  484,  41) i. 
Liverpool,  78,  249. 
Loft  house,  231. 
London,  92,  1 18,  238. 
Longevity,  97,  123,  124,  417. 
Lout;-  Preston,  248,  205,  299. 

310.  436,  441. 
Lords,  House  of,  43. 
Lothersdale,  331). 
Low  Moor,  164. 
Lyards  Seat,  360. 

MAI-KKING,  433. 
Malham,  297,  299,  481. 
Mallrmi  Moor,  390. 
Mallcrstang,  499. 
Malton,  50,  365,  381,  409. 
Manchester,  78,  186,  196,206, 

283,  326,  414,  432. 
Manning-ham,  278,  283. 
Marlon,   245,    299,  323,  377, 

3*9,  4«7- 
Marske,  384. 
Marston  Moor,  54,  104,   182, 

3°5-  34 '  • 
Maxstoke,   116. 
Meaux,  318. 
Menston,  38,  54,  55,  66,  120, 

139,  141,  145,  159,  161,  218. 
Middleham,  459. 
Middleton,   Myddelton,  167, 

189,  194,  20 1,  204,  218,  248, 

251. 

Minskip,  378. 
Morecambe,  127,  309. 
Morton,  262,  280. 

N.vri'A,  342,  380. 

Natural    History,    266,    290, 

296,  442,  448. 
N'essfield,   27,  246,  252,   259, 

266,  398,  439. 

N'ewall,  Newhall,  73,  95,  177. 
Newcastle,  183,  304,  326,339, 

483- 

Newsome,  Ncwsholme,   176, 

184,  325. 
Newton,  157. 

Newton  Kyme,  I  10,  174,  203. 
Nidderdale,  29,  85,  100,   184. 
Norfolk,  377. 
Norton  Tower,  330. 
Northallerton,  50. 
Norway,  422,  484. 


Norwich,   101,   177,  420. 

Norwood,  370. 

Nun  Appleton,  st'i-  Appleton. 

Nuremberg,  438. 

I  >\  I  AKIO,   284. 

Orkney,  47. 
( )rmsgill,  360. 
Ornithology,    172,    173,    442, 

469,  480. 

Open-field  system,  2(^7. 
Osberton,  105. 
Osmaston,  211. 
(  Mend,   177. 
(  >swestrv,  374. 
Otley,  25,  90,    105,  123,  137, 

142,  146,  156,  198,  203,  214, 

301,  416,  460. 
Otley  Angling  Assoc.,  102. 

Bridge,  94. 

Charities,  72-3. 

Chevin,  26,  27,  28,  ^7,  77, 
91,  256,  441. 

Church,    32,    40,    58,    101, 

143- 

Gallows,  44,  45. 
Grammar  School,  71. 
Lepers  Hosp.,  04. 
Name  of,  28,  34,  39. 
Nonconformity,  74. 
Philharm.  Soc.,   102. 
Trades,  80,  81. 
Vicars,  <>N. 
Workhouse,  97. 
Worthies,  87-90. 
Oughtershaw,  494,  495,  497, 

499- 

Overborough,  140. 
Oxford,  308. 

PAGAN     MYTHOLOGY,     197, 

-3*,  3*«,  453- 
Palestine,  474. 
Pannal,  112. 
Pateley  Bridge,  74,   168,  171, 

364.  383.  430-  446,  45°- 
Patrington,  46,  47. 
Pcnistone,  247. 
Percival  Hall,  383,  459. 
Penrith,  354. 
Phallic  worship,  26,  240. 
Pickering-,  229. 
Plagues,  69,  304. 
Plumpton,  439. 
Pool,  38,  46,  53,  95,  121,  124, 

127,  128. 


Pontel'ract,  51,  72,    141. 
Population,  23. 
Postorth  Gill,  359,  360. 
Poulton,  127. 
Preston,    56. 

01  :  r,i:<  ,   13(1. 

Oueen's  Jubilee,  153.  202, 
214. 

RAHY  C\s 1 1.1-:,  303. 

Rainfall,   19,  482. 

Rawdon,  175. 

Raysgill,  481,  496. 

Redcar,  164. 

Redshaw  Gill,  361. 

Reformation,  i  fleets  of,  277, 
304,  305,  330,  398,  447. 

Relics  discovered,  106,  125, 
159,  189,  190,  191,  233,  241, 
265,  279,  287,  322,  324,  402, 
410,411,  427,  462,492,499. 

Religious  persecution,  277, 
330,  455- 

Ribchester,  196. 

Ribstonn,  173. 

Richmond,  44,   51,    181,  256, 

3«'.  394- 
Riddlesden,     no,    246,    247, 

248,  258,  416. 
Rievaulx,    160. 
Rigton,  121,  454. 
Rilston,    Rylstone,   228,   256, 

-">7-  304.  3 '7-  337-  339,  34'- 
380,  392,  393,  425,  461. 

Riots,  power-loom,  284. 

Ripley,  52,  78,   141. 

Kip<>".  33-  37-  46,  49,  .S'-  5-', 

69,  78,  124,  280,  383. 
Rising  in  the  North,  304. 
Risphill,  330. 
Romaldskirk,  225. 
Roman     baptism,     191,     iq2, 

3^7,  412. 

camps,    27,    187,    265,    270, 
272. 

coins,  28,  29,  194,  2iO,  4^0, 

465- 

custom,  433. 

grave-slabs,  188,  189,  216. 

lead-mines,   186,  450. 

mile-stone,  195. 

roads,    27,    127,    133,    140, 

159,  186,  195,  431. 
Rome,  59,  65,  176. 
Rood-lofts,  65,  493. 


5  is 


Rugby,  148. 

Kumbalds  Moor  Antiquities, 

197,  214,  233.  270. 

Hermit,  156,  283. 

Military  Camp,  242. 
Ryedale,  141. 

SALTAIRK,  152. 

Sanctuary,  37. 

Santa  Clans,  208. 

Saxon  '//?',  34,  453. 

Scaleber,  109,  143. 

Scales,    1 68,    172,    173,    458, 

475- 

Scandinavia,  240. 
Scarborough,  50. 

Scotland,  205,  290,  412,  465. 
Scottish  raids,    120,  167,  205, 

300,  322,  331. 
Scotton,  100,  141. 
Sedbergh,  99,  127,  167,  218. 
Sedgefield,  323. 
Selby,  52,  397. 
Scmerwater,  410. 
Settle,  159,  247,  461,  484. 
Seven,  number,  234. 
Shaw  Hall,  420. 
Sheffield,  8 1,  84,  123. 
Sherburn,  37,  46,  47. 
Shetland,  47. 
Silchester,  207. 
Silkstone,  99. 
Sili-den,    142,   235,  271,    280, 

299. 

Simon  Seat,  274,  358,  363. 
Skeletons  discovered,  279. 
Skibeden,  295,  299,  338,  340, 

359- 

Skipton,  48,  52,  56,  57,  68, 
78,  in,  164,  177,  195,  208, 
247,  248,  249,  258,  277,  280, 
298,  301,  313,  330,  335. 

Skyi'eholme,  364,  382,  383. 

Skyrethorns,  417,  421,  422. 

Slack,  28. 

Sledmere,  409. 

Smithies  Bridge,  326. 

South  Duffield,  95,  100. 

Sparsholt,  372. 

Spen  Valley,  303. 


Stainborough,    178. 
Starbottom,  436,  485. 
Stainburn,  99,  102,   108,    i  16, 

129,  258. 
Staveley,  299. 

Stead,  66,  157,  158,  159,  296. 
Steeton,  53,  437,  438. 
Stilling-ton,  211. 
Stockeld,   131,  158,   170. 
Stockton-on-Tees,  206. 
Stonehenge,  236. 
Storiths,  296,   299,   331     335, 

441. 

Swarthgill,  498. 
Swastika,  237,  242. 

TADCASTER,  28,  79,  133.  378. 

Thimbleby,  384. 

Thirkleby,  441. 

Thirsk,  93. 

Thornton  in  Craven,  339. 

Thorp,  46,  467. 

Thorp  Arch,  32,  67,  71,  244. 

Thorpe  in  Craven,  323,  379, 

388,  389,  403.  ' 
Threshlield,     299,    414,    415, 

421,  436. 

Tliwaites,   175,   176,   184. 
Tidswail,  437. 
Tilbury,  179. 
Timble,  38,  39,  334. 
Tolston,  Toulston,   176,   184. 
Towton,  267. 
Trollers  Gill,  364,  384. 
Truckle  Crags,  362. 

UNDERLEY,  420. 

I'rswick,  410,  412,  430,  466. 

VALLK  CRUCIS,  61. 

Valley    of    Desolation,    358, 

360. 
Viking  invasion,  35,  199,  225, 

270,  475.  492. 

Viking  memorial,  35,  392. 
Virginia,   180. 

\VAKKJ--IKI.D,  78,  138. 

Wales,  458. 

Walton  (Thorp  Arch),  174. 


Walton  Head,  i  13. 
Wapentakes,  origin  of,  42,43. 
Waresley,  377. 
Washburn,  94,  107,  108. 
Weeton,  299. 
Wensleydale,  147,  380. 
Wentworth,  246. 
Weston,    39,   40,   55,   59,   82, 
94,  i  oo,  163,  213,  268,  462, 
481. 

Westminster  Abbey,  155. 
Wetherby,  40,    55,    78,    398, 

469. 
Wharfe,  meaning  of,  189. 

Village,  190. 
Wharfedale  Agricult.   Snc., 

102,  181,  471. 
Animals  wild  in,  360,  368, 

471,  487,  499. 
Floods,  485. 
Poets,    140,    146,   155,   158, 

(60. 

Population,  23. 
Rainfall,  19,  482. 
Superstitions,  212,  230,  431. 
Temperature,  482. 
Wheatlev,  34,  203,  221,  436. 
Whitby,  51,  59,  226. 
Whitechurch,  74. 
Wighill,  248. 
Windsor,  456. 
Wistow,  37. 
Woodhouse,   323,   324,   365, 

366,  377,  476. 
Woofa,  235. 
Woolley,  66. 
Wormhill,  437. 

YEADON,  39,  78,  79,  218,  242, 

209. 
York,  25,  35,  50,  67,  79,  93, 

IOI,    III,    I  18,    122,   136,    149, 
174,   203,   243,   303. 

Castle,  281. 

Gallows,  44. 

Lepers,  51. 

Nunnery,  50. 
Yorkshire  Par.  Regr.  Sory., 

69,  417. 
Yockenthwaite,  491,  495. 


Deiny  8VO.,   ,-,-J/   A^'V'.v,    cloth,  gilt    lettered,    iiy  post    ux. 
Demy  jtn.,   superior  f>af>i-r,  gilt  tups,   extra  platen,  jo/-.       f-'i-^   remain. 


Ro  M  A  X  TIC     RlCHMONDSHl  R  K, 

BEING    A    COMI'I.I    II.     A.CCOUN1      <>l      THi: 

HISTORY,    ANTIQUITIES,    AND    Si  KNERV   OF    TIIK 

Pun  KKSQUE  VALLEYS  OF  THE  SWALK  AND  YORK,  AND  SURROUNDING 

MOORS   AND   Gu  NS. 

BY    HARRY     SPKIGHT. 

II  '////     Map,     flans,    and    numerous    Illustrations. 

SOMI-:     PRMSS     OPINIONS. 

"Although  there  is  no  part  of  Yorkshire  richer  in  historic  inicrest  or  more 
fascinating  in  picturescjueness,  Richmondshire  has  lain  almost  as  tallow  ground  for  the 
topographer  since  early  in  the  century,  when  Dr.  \Vhitaker  brought  out  his  monumental 
work.  But  that  work  is  somewhat  restricted  in  its  survey,  whereas  Mr.  Speight  has 
left  nothing-  of  moment  untouched.  Hoth  valleys  have  been  studied  with  unwearied 
diligence  and  with  obvious  zest  by  Mr.  Speight.  His  work  is  thorough  and  exhaustive, 
and  in  addition  it  has  the  charm  of  extreme  readableness.  If  tin-  remainder  of  Yorkshire 
could  be  covered  and  described  as  carefully  and  systematically  as  have  the  localities 
forming  the  subjects  of  Mr.  Speight's  volumes,  something  like  literary  justice  would  be 
done  to  the  story  of  this  great  county."  /.ecits  Mercury. 

"In  this  volume,  well  illustrated  with  photographic  views,  portraits,  coats  of  arms, 
X:c.,  Mr.  Harrv  Speight  tells  us  all  he  has  been  able  to  glean  about  the  town  and 
district  of  Richmond,  CaUerick,  Hedale,  and  the  upper  parts  of  Swaledale  ;  and  then 
crosMMg  over  to  Wensleydale,  takes  us  to  Danbv,  Bolton,  Aysgarth,  and  the  romantic 
region  about  I  lawes.  Manv  of  its  chapters  are  pleasant  reading-  to  everybody,  while 
to  the  Yorkshire  dalesmen,  it  ought  to  prove  a  most  valuable  storehouse  of  local 
information."  7'inicx. 

"Mr.  Speight  has  a  happy  versatility.  He  can  write  with  confidence  on  the 
history,  topography,  geologv,  ecclesiastical  antiquities,  and  ancient  customs  of  these 
romantic  districts  in  which  he  has  spent  his  life.  Much  folk-lore,  much  family  history, 
and  many  a  streak  ot  native  humour  lend  variety  to  the  pages,  which  are  abundantly 
i  1  1  ustrated.  "  —  Acadi  mv. 

"The  volume  contains  chapters  of  original  research,  mainly  historical,  anil  is 
admirably  furnished  with  photographs,  engravings,  and  maps.  Two  contributions  to 
history  are  of  importance:  one  an  account  of  the  Knight  Templars  Hospice  and  Chapel 
on  Penhill,  and  the  other  the  story  of  the  Raydale  Riot.  *  Dr.  Whitaker's  book 

cannot  now  be  purchased  for  less  than  £,12,  but  even  if  it  were  worth  while  reproducing 
it,  Mr.  Speight's  volume  would  compete  with  it  successfully.  In  this  volume  Mr. 
Speig-ht  has  produced  the  best  piece  of  work  which  stands  in  his  name.  Yorkshire  /'/.v/, 

"  Mr.  Speight  works  carefully,  takes  pains  to  come  at  the  best  sources  of  informa- 
tion, and  in  the  case  of  Richmondshire  as  in  that  of  each  district  which  he  has  hitherto 
treated,  succeeds  in  giving  us  something  distinctly  better  than  former  writers  have 
produced."  Maniliester  Guardian, 


"The  villages  of  the  two  dales  are  full  of  interest.  The  monastic  houses  of  Easby, 
Jervaulx,  Penhill,  and  Marrick,  all  add  to  the  mediaeval  importance  of  the  district,  and 
a  locality  whence  came  John  Wycliffe  can  never  be  regarded  as  obscure.  Mr.  Speight 
seems  to  have  made  a  very  complete  perambulation  of  the  whole  district  and  describes 
from  personal  acquaintance  the  most  remote  places.  *  *  Gradually  he  is  covering 

the  county  with  a  series  of  local  histories  such  as  few,  if  any  other  parts  of  England  can 
show." — Bradford  Observer. 

"Mr.  Speight  is  to  be  congratulated  on  having,  at  immense  labour  and  research, 
added  another  standard  work  to  the  literature  of  Yorkshire.  There  is  not  a  page  in 
the  volume  that  does  not  reveal  some  fresh  fact  or  correct  some  old  error.  The 
illustrations,  too,  are  excellent  and  many  of  them  of  great  rarity.  *  *  It  is  certainly 

the  ablest  contribution  to  the  history  and  antiquities  of  Richmondshire  since  the  time 
of  Dr.  Whitaker,  whose  history  is  now  so  scarce  and  valuable."  Darlington  iind 
Stockton  Times. 

"The  moors  are  noted  for  their  stock  of  grouse,  and  the  rivers  Swale  and  Yore 
with  their  tributaries,  have  an  attraction  for  the  trout  fisher.  Such  points  are  by  no 
means  neglected  by  Mr.  Speight,  who  also  devotes  a  page  to  a  concise  history  of  the 
well-known  Beda'.e  Hounds.  *  *  This  book  should  be  in  the  hands  of  every 

pleasure  tourist  who  wishes  to  make  the  most  of  his  visit." — Field. 

"In  this  work  Mr.  Speight  has  sustained  his  reputation  as  one  of  the  best 
of  Yorkshire  topographers.  His  previous  works  were  models  of  accuracy  and 
completeness,  but  the  volume  under  notice  is  one  of  even  more  pretentious  nature. 
The  histories  of  the  towns  and  villages  of  interest  in  both  of  the  grand  dales  with  which 
he  deals  are  adequately  given.  *  *  The  work  should  be  in  the  hands  of  every 

Yorkshire  antiquary  and  lover  of  the  Yorkshire  hills  and  dales." — West  Yorkshire 
Pioneer. 

Of  old  Yorkshire  families  more  particularly  dealt  wlt/i  mav  be  mentioned  the  following: — 

Alderson,  Allen,  Aske,  Atkinson,  Banks,  Bathurst,  Bellerby,  Birkbeck,  Blackburn, 
Blades,  Bolton,  Booth,  Bowes,  Brown,  Bulmer,  Burgh,  Calvert,  Chapman,  Chaytor, 
Clarke,  Clifford,  Close,  Coates,  Conyers,  Coverdale,  Cradock,  Croft,  D'Arcy,  De  la 
Mare,  Denys,  Dundas,  Ellerton,  Fawcett,  Fitzhugh,  Fothergill,  Fulthorpe,  Gale, 
Gascoigne,  Gaunt,  Gibson,  Gill,  Harker,  Harrison,  Hertford,  Hicks,  Home,  Hutchinson, 
Hutton,  Ingleby,  James,  Jaques,  Johnson,  Kearton,  King,  Lawson,  Leeds,  Lennox, 
Lightfoot,  Lister,  Loftus,  Malolacu,  Marmion,  Mason,  Metcalfe,  Milbank,  Montacute, 
Moorhouse,  Mowbray,  Neville,  Norton,  Osborne,  Other,  Pattison,  Peacock,  Pigot, 
Raine,  Rawe,  Robinson,  Routh,  Ryder,-  St.  Cjuintin,  Scott,  Scrope,  Smith,  Spensley, 
Swale,  Taylor,  Tempest,  Thoresby,  Tiptoft,  Tophani,  Walker,  Wandesforde,  Webster, 
Whaley,  Wharncliffe,  Wharton,  Wickliffe,  Wilkinson,  Willis,  Winn,  Wood,  Wyvill, 
Yarker,  Zetland. 

The  book  contains  more  than  ONE  HUNDRED  ILLUSTRATIONS  of  historic  buildings, 
scenery,  portraits,  &c.,  by  the  best  artists  and  engravers.  Amongst  the  subjects  are 
the  following : — The  Conqueror  granting  Richmondshire  to  Earl  Alan ;  Keep  of 
Richmond  Castle  early  this  century;  Remains  of  Chapel  on  Catterick  Bridge;  Brough 
Hall  a  century  ago;  Bedale  in  the  Coaching  Days;  the  old  Church  in  Coverdale; 
Middleham  Castle  in  1780;  Remains  of  Knights  Templars  Chapel  on  Penhill;  Anglo- 
Saxon  Skeleton  found  in  Wensley  Park  ;  Aysgarth  ;  Bedstead  of  Mary,  Queen  of 
Scots;  Nappa  Hall  a  century  ago;  Thomas,  Marquis  of  Wharton;  Dr.  Fothergill, 
F.R.S.  ;  Thomas,  Earl  of  Zetland;  Matthew  Hutton,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury;  the 
late  Lord  Bolton;  Sir  Wm.  Lawson,  Bart.  ;  Major  Scrope;  Lady  Byron;  "Sister 
Dora";  Betty  Webster  (aged  106);  etc. 


LONDON:    ELLIOT  STOCK,  62,  Paternoster  Row,  E.C. 
And  all  Booksellers, 


V,-'.'.,     //<   ft,  iff,  s,    tlutli    /imp,   .,'''<>,•    Ar 
Very   t'c\v   co|)ics   remain. 


THROUGH    AIREDALE    FROW   GOOLE   TO 

AALHA/A, 


Ks  o\-  i  HI- 

GEOLOGY,    BOTANY,    ORNITHOLOGY,    FOLK-LORE,   AND   ANGLING 
IN    AIREDALE. 

BY 

JOHNMH     GRAY    (H.  SI-KICHT). 

The  work  includes  a  history  of  every  place  on  the  banks  of  the  A  ire  between  (  loole 
and  Malliam,  with  brief  descriptions  of  the  objects  of  interest  from  six  to  ten  miles 
round  the  principal  places. 

Seventy   Illustrations   and   Map. 


The  1'nntefract  Advertiser  says:  "  \Ve  know  nothing  to  equal  it,  or  to  pretend  to 
the  smallest  rivalry  with  it."  The  /irudfnrd  Observer  says  :  "  It  is  like  looking-  through 
a  telescope  at  the  stars,  or  at  a  drop  of  water  through  a  microscope." 


I.KKDS  :    WAI.KKR  <S:   L. \YCOCK.       I>KAD!'oKD  :   T.    HKKAK  &  Co.,  Ln. 
SKIPIOX  :   KDMOXDSON  &  Co. 


.V;v.,   jrj  pa tfes,   eluth    limp,   j'6  ;    by  post  j'y. 

TRA/APS  AND   DRIVES   IN  THE  CRAVEN 
HIGHLANDS, 

,\RR.\X<;F.I)   FOR   THK   CSF  OF  VISITORS. 

BY 

H.     SPEIGHT. 

Is  abridged  from  the  author's  larger  work,  but  much  new  matter  is  added, 
likewise  Footpath  Maps  of  the  country  around  Settle  and  Ingleton,  besides  a  folding' 
Map  of  the  whole  area  embraced  by  the  work.  By  utilising'  some  of  the  illustrations 
trom  the  larger  work,  it  has  been  possible  to  publish  the  book  at  a  low  price. 


The  Daily  Chnniiele  observes  :  "This  is  one  of  the  most  interesting-  local  histories 
which  we  have  read  for  a  long-  time."  The  Yorkshire  Post  says:  "The  volume  is 
marked  by  much  originality,  many  objects  and  antiquities  being  pointed  out  that  have 
iml  been  before  mentioned.  All  the  caves  and  pot-holes  (about  70)  are  described,  and 
iheir  exact  localities  defined."  The  Leeds  Meirnrv  says  :  "  It  is  a  bright  and  interesting- 
guide-book,  with  admirable  descriptions  and  sufficient  history  and  folk-lore,  topography, 
g-rolng-y,  &c."  The  Carlisle  Journal  observes:  "It  covers  the  whole  country  from 
Skipton  to  Kirkby  I.onsdale,  and  northwards  to  Dentdale,  an  area  of  over  500  square 
miles,  and  is  as  instructive  as  a  .\fninty,  and  as  compact  as  a  Hiiedeket."  The  Bradford 
Obsen'er  says  :  "  It  is  by  far  the  best  handbook  on  the  district  procurable."  Mr.  J.  A. 
Farrer,  J.P.  (lord  of  the  manor  of  Clapham,  Ingleborough,  &c.)  writes:  "It  is  an 
admirable  work,  and  it  seems  to  be  a  model  of  what  a  guide-book  should  be." 


KU.IOT    STOCK,  (>j,    PATICKNOSTEK    Row,   LONDON,   E.G. 


THIRD    EDITION. 


Crox/i  fii'it.,  417  pa.ift'S,  doth  gilt,  J/6  ,•    extra   bound,  tfilt  tups,  4  ft. 
Cru-vii    4t».,  superior  paper,  gilt    tops,  extra    I'nuitispiece    /'/«/<•,    75  -. 


Chronicles  and  Stories  of  Old  Bingley. 

A    I  I'LL   ACCOrNT   Ol-'   THE 

HISTORY,    ANTIQUITIES,    NATURAL    PRODUCTIONS, 
SCENERY,  CUSTOMS,  AND  FOLK-LORE 

OF  THE  ANCIENT  TOWN  AND 
PARISH   OF   BINGLEY,  IN  THE  WEST  RIDING  OF  YORKSHIRE. 

HY 

HARRY     SPEIGHT, 

Author  of  "  The  Craven  Highlands  ;  "   "  Through  Airedale  ;  "   "  Nidderdale  ;  " 
"  Romantic  Richmondshire  ;"   "  Upper  Wliarfedale  ;  "  etc. 

Containing  Thirty  four  Full-page  Plates,  and  about  Sixty 
Illustrations  in  the  Text. 


SOME     PRESS     NOTICES. 

"The  topographical,  historical,  and  antiquarian  work  of  Mr.  Marry  Speight  is  so 
well  known  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  West  Riding  that  they  will  hardly  need  to  be  told 
that  his  most  recent  book  Clnoiiicles  and  Stories  of  Old  Ringlcy — is  a  marvel  of 
diligence,  thoroughness,  and  painstaking  accuracy.  It  includes  not  only  the  result  of 
a  large  amount  of  scientific  and  historical  research,  but  likewise  anecdotes,  traditions, 
and  personal  reminiscences,  which  in  a  few  years  might  have  been  irrecoverably  lost 
and  forgotten  through  the  passing  away  of  the  few  witnesses  who  can  recall  them  to 
recollection.  The  inhabitants  of  Bingley  owe  an  immeasurable  debt  of  gratitude  to 
Mr.  Speight  for  having  thus  rescued  from  oblivion  a  very  large  amount  of  interesting 
and  valuable  matter  which,  in  the  natural  order  of  things,  would  have  been  entirely 
lost.  In  fact  the  book  may  be  pronounced  in  a  certain  sense  final,  since  nothing  will 
be  left  to  any  possible  literary  successor,  except  to  rearrange  the  matter  here  provided 
according  to  his  own  taste,  and  bring  it  up  to  date  by  additional  facts  of  subsequent 
occurrence.  Mr.  Speight  begins  at  the  beginning — far  back  behind  the  realm  of  the 
antiquarian  proper  with  the  geological  history  of  the  foundation  rocks  which  underlie 
the  alluvium  and  drift  upon  which  a  large  part  of  the  town  stands.  He  even  traces  the 
materials  of  which  these  rocks  are  composed  to  their  original  sources  in  northern 

gneissic  and  granitic  mountains Through  the  Ice  Age  and  its  probable 

sequence  of  events  Mr.  Speight  conducts  to  the  early  settlement  of  the  district  by 
primaeval  man,  the  aboriginal  race,  the  Goidelic  and  Brythonic  Celts  ;  and  this  part  of 
the  work  has  the  merit  of  being  applied  and  illustrated  by  reference  to  local  place- 
names.  The  etymological  evidence  is  of  extreme  interest  and  value,  and  although  it  i- 
of  course  well  to  be  on  one's  guard  against  too  fanciful  or  too  plausible  interpretations 
of  the  names  now  borne  by  different  places,  it  is  impossible  to  class  Mr.  Speight  with 
the  reckless  speculators  in  this  alluring  pastime.  The  chapters  on  "  Old  Roads,"  and 
"  Old  Dykes  and  Boundaries  "  are  equally  fascinating  to  those  who  love  to  linger  on 
the  early  doings  and  records  of  the  races  who  occupied  and  subdued  the  land  ;  but  it  is 
impossible  for  us  to  do  more  than  thus  briefly  draw  the  reader's  attention  to  the  good 

fare  provided  for  him Everything  has  been  admirably  and  conscientiously 

done  from  beginning  to  end,  and  there  is  not  a  careless  or  slovenly  detail  in  the 
volume." — Keighley  News. 


"  Probably    no   completcr    history    <>t    a    small    town    has    been    written    than    Mr. 
Harry  Speight's  Chnniicles  u,  '  Olil  liin^l,  \-.      Mr.  Speight  lias  studied  cverv 

feature  of  the  ancient  parish  with  such  minuteness,  and  such  a  shrewd  eye  tor  its 
meaning1,  that  the  mounds  and  rings  and  dykes,  and  unintelligible  carved  stones  which 
remain  lo  speak  of  tliem,  enable  him  to  re-people  the  dale-  with  (ioidcl  and  Brython, 
Roman,  Angle,  and  Dane,  each  in  their  habit  as  they  lived.  Nay,  earlier  Mill,  he  has 
deserilicd  the  slow  formation  of  the  valley,  the  coming-  of  its  plant  life,  i|s  preparation 
for  man,  and  all  with  a  picturesque  hand.  In  respect  of  place  and  field-names,  and  the. 
verification  of  their  meaning  by  an  examination  of  sites,  the  book  is  a  piece  ot  original 
work  the  like  ot  which  we  have  never  seen."  Yorkshire  I'ost. 


"The  book  will  be.  a  surprise  to  most  readers,  both  residents  in  and  visitors  to 
Bingley,  for  few  have  any  idea  that  the  little  town,  whose  interest  tor  most  people 
nowadays  is  its  charming  and  even  romantic  scenery,  lias  come  so  often  into  touch  with 
the  greater  stream  of  the  national  life.  It  is  indeed  obvious  throughout  the  work  that 
tht  records  in  London,  York,  and  \Vaketield  have  been  assiduously  searched,  as  well  as 
due  notice  taken  of  local  archives.  The  modern  history  is  very  full,  and  there  are  brief 
notices  (some  90  pages)  of  (he  surrounding  places,  Morton,  Kldwick,  ( 'ottingley, 
Harden,  Cullingwortli,  and  \Vilsdcn.  The  book  i-  capitally  illustrated."  Hnulluid 

•  :•<'/-. 

"  Mr.  Speight  pos>,.sscs  the  rare  gilt  of  giving  a  general  interest  to  his  studies  in 
local  history.  The  history  of  Hingley  is  by  no  means  insignificant  as  local  histories  go. 
Mr.  Speight  has  devoted  much  patient  labour  and  research  to  its  elucidation,  and 
should  his  pleasant  descriptions  and  illustrations  attract  visitors  to  the  district,  they  will 
find  in  him  a  very  competent  and  instructive  guide."  Times. 


"  Mr.  Speight  appears  to  us  to  have  done  his  work  mosi  carefully  and 
conscientiously,  and  produced  a  book  which  will  not  only  be  pri/ed  by  the  inhabitants 
of  Binglev,  but  by  a  numerous  class  in  all  the  districts  around.  The  illustrations  of 
antiquities,  noted  resiliences,  portraits  of  celebrities,  etc.,  are  both  numerous  and 
excellent.  It  is  also  admirably  printed  and  bound."  Halifax  Courier. 


"It  is  pleasantly  descriptive  of  actual  tact,  whether  as  regards  manorial  history  or 
scenic  surroundings,  and  it  is  strong  in  biographical  interest.  Few  of  our  parishes  in 
these  later  davs  have  had  so  able  and  conscientious  a  chronicler."-  /.ectts  Mercury. 


"The  work  is  divided  into  four  parts,  the  first  extending  from  the  foundation  ol 
the  rocks  to  the  Ice  Age  and  the  advent  of  man  ;  the  second  brings  us  down  to  the 
Norman  invasion  ;  ami  the  third  continues  the  work  to  the  present  day.  The 
•concluding  part  deals  with  the  outlying-  districts.  Throughout  the  book  is  full  of 
interest,  and  will,  without  doubt,  become  the  standard  authority  on  all  the  matters  of 
local  history  with  which  the  author  has  dealt."  liintfley  Chronicle. 

"The  third  part  deals  with  the  manorial  history  of  Bingley,  its  history  during  the 
<"rusades,  the  chronicles  of  the  141)1,  i6th,  and  succeeding  centuries,  and  then  passes 
on  to  very  interesting  ground  when  treating  of  the  history  which  surrounds  the 
foundation  of  the  Parish  Church,  the  (Irammar  School,  the  National  Schools,  and  local 
Nonconformity.  His  remarks  on  the  extension  of  the  town  and  trade  are  very  full,  and 
show  much  careful  examination,  while  those  chapters  dealing  with  folk-lore  and  old 
customs,  pleasant  walks,  and  places  of  public  resort,  cannot  fail  to  be  of  immense 
interest.  It  is  an  excellent  volume,  and  has  been  handsomely  printed  by  Mr.  Kdward 
Foulds,  of  Binglcy."  H'fst  Yorkshire  /'ioneer. 


"It  is  a  very  comprehensive,  valuable,  and  interesting  work,  and  we  should  say 
will  add  greatly  to  the  able  author's  reputation  as  a  historian  and  antiquarv."  /Unifier 
Herald.  .  

LONDON:    ELLIOT  STOCK,  62,   PATKKNOSTER  Row,  K.C., 

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